Stevie Nicks charms State Fair crowd with breezy, cheery show and tales of Prince
If it was up to the rest of Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks would not have headlined the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand on Friday night.
Back in 2014, Christine McVie surprised fans by coming out of retirement and returning to Fleetwood Mac. They launched a tour at Minneapolis’ Target Center that September and spent 14 months on the road. Inspired by the reunion, McVie and Lindsey Buckingham began writing songs together, with the assumption Nicks would eventually chime in with her own fresh material and a new record and tour would follow.
Instead, Nicks decided to go back on the road on her own to promote “24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault,” a collection of new takes on tracks she had written over the decades but never fully recorded. Buckingham and McVie went ahead and released their own record together (and they’ll play Northrop Auditorium in Minneapolis on Oct. 30) while Nicks continues to add solo tour dates.
Friday night’s unseasonably chilly, overcast weather, with a storm brewing in the distance, felt like the perfect backdrop for the melodramatic Nicks. But Nicks, 69, was in a terrific mood and spent much of the show grinning and chatting with the crowd of 12,724. She even indulged the faithful in a full-out twirl or two more than usual, earning cheers each time.
Nicks followed (nearly) the same set list she did when she headlined St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center in December, but Friday felt like a different show. Her X openers, the Pretenders, were sorely missed, with singer/songwriter Vanessa Carlton warming the stage with a pleasant, if dull, set at the piano. (Nicks covered Carlton’s “Carousel” on “24 Karat Gold,” as the song was a favorite of Nicks’ mother prior to her death.)
Thankfully, Nicks brought plenty of sparks on her own. She spent the night in sunglasses, due to a recent cataract surgery, but she delivered some of her strongest vocals in years. Yeah, she hit some wonky notes here and there – “Stand Back” in particular – but she powered through like a true pro. It probably helped matters that this was only her third concert this summer.
As she did at the X, Nicks dedicated “Moonlight (A Vampire’s Dream)” to Prince. This time around, though, she explained that the song reminded her of her relationship with the Purple One: “When I’m nervous or upset, I say ‘Prince, walk with me.’ ” She also told the familiar tale of inadvertently ripping off “Little Red Corvette” when writing “Stand Back” and how she came clean about it to Prince and convinced him to play on the song. (She also spoke about her sole, and brief, marriage to local Kim Anderson, who was in the crowd Friday night.)
With rain gently falling during the latter half of her set and that storm looking like it was about get serious, Nicks ended the show early with “Edge of Seventeen,” skipping her planned encore of “Rhiannon” and “Landslide.” Even so, she proved she made the right choice in sticking to her solo career, if only for now. Fleetwood Mac can wait.
http://www.twincities.com/2017/08/25...les-of-prince/