St. Paul show

[SisterNightroad]

Going to Stevie Nicks’ St. Paul concert? Check out her latest record, reissues

Time, it seems, is a relative concept to Stevie Nicks.

On Sept. 30, 2014, she released her eighth solo album, “24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault.” On that same day, she kicked off a Fleetwood Mac tour — the first in 17 years with Christine McVie back in the fold — in front of a sold-out crowd at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

The fully reunited Fleetwood Mac was such a hit that the tour extended to fill much of 2015, including another Twin Cities stop at St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center. Now, more than two years after the release of “24 Karat Gold,” Nicks is back on the road as a solo act, performing a set that draws from the record. She headlines the X on Tuesday with support from the Pretenders.

To prepare for the show, here’s a look at her latest album, along with some new top-notch reissues from her back catalog.

’24 KARAT GOLD: SONGS FROM THE VAULT’

In 2011, Nicks issued “In Your Dreams,” her first solo effort in a decade. She wrote the first single, “Secret Love,” back in 1976 and it was considered for Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours,” but didn’t make the final cut. Her re-recorded version helped generate buzz for “In Your Dreams” and clearly inspired Nicks for the follow-up.

“24 Karat Gold” consists almost entirely of new takes on songs Nicks wrote, but never fully recorded, in the past. Most date from between 1969 and 1987 and several will have fans wondering why she sat on them for so long. It opens with the terrific rocker “Starshine” and then settles into a more sedate, but still bewitching, mood. She recorded it mostly in Nashville and country music influences pop up throughout, most obviously on “Blue Water,” which features Lady Antebellum on backing vocals.

With a running time of more than an hour, “24 Karat Gold” does drag at times, particularly near the end, but it will be a delight to hear some of this material live on stage.

‘BELLA DONNA’ AND ‘THE WILD HEART’

Nicks’ first two solo albums just got the deluxe reissue treatment from Rhino, with much-needed remastered sound and bonus discs full of demos and other unreleased material.

“Bella Donna” still stands as Nicks’ finest album on her own, with its best material able to stand toe-to-toe with her Fleetwood Mac classics. Released in the summer of 1981, Nicks began writing the songs for it two years earlier, during sessions for Fleetwood Mac’s “Tusk.” She recorded it with an all-star cast of musicians, including members of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, the Eagles and the E Street Band.

The singles “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” “Edge of Seventeen” and “Leather and Lace” helped turn “Bella Donna” into a smash hit that sold four million copies in its first three months, far more impressive sales than those achieved by solo albums from her Fleetwood Mac bandmates Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood.

“Bella Donna” deserved the success. There’s barely a bum moment on the 10-track album, and the sessions were so productive that two great songs got shuffled off to soundtracks: “Blue Lamp” (which was used for 1981’s “Heavy Metal”) and “Sleeping Angel” (a high point in the following year’s “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”). Another three numbers from the era ended up on “24 Karat Gold.” The deluxe version features the two soundtrack contributions and a live concert from 1981 that includes most of the record interspersed with some key Fleetwood Mac songs (“Gold Dust Woman,” “Dreams,” “Rhiannon”).

“The Wild Heart” doesn’t live up to the high standards of Nicks’ debut, but it does feature her memorable smash “Stand Back.” As the story goes, she was on her honeymoon when she heard Prince’s “Little Red Corvette” on the radio. She started humming along and was inspired enough to write her own Prince-like song, “Stand Back,” which she recorded that night on a tape recorder in her honeymoon suite. Later, while fleshing out the song in the studio, Prince stopped in and played uncredited synthesizer on the track. As she once said: “(Then) he just got up and left as if the whole thing happened in a dream.”

‘MIRAGE’

Fleetwood Mac’s 1982 album “Mirage” is often overlooked among the band’s works. Many fans, and even sometimes Lindsey Buckingham himself, have dismissed it as an overproduced, underwhelming attempt to re-create the magic of “Rumours.”

It also stood in stark contrast to the group’s previous effort, 1979’s “Tusk,” a divisive, angry and sometimes mean double album driven by Buckingham’s desire to experiment with Fleetwood Mac’s sound. “Mirage” offers a dozen deceptively simple pop songs dressed with some of the most elegant, restrained guitar work of Buckingham’s career.

In September, Rhino reissued “Mirage” as a deluxe edition, adding a revealing clutch of demos (Buckingham’s initial version of “Empire State” feels more like a “Tusk” outtake) and a live disc drawn from the band’s relatively brief 1982 tour, which stopped by the old Met Center in Bloomington that September.

Nicks’ sad, nostalgic “Gypsy” was one of the big hits from “Mirage,” and it has blossomed into one of her signature tunes. Even better, though, is “That’s Alright,” a bittersweet country lament that stands among her finest work. It also includes a line that may well be a mantra for Nicks: “Well, I never did believe in time.”

If you go:

Who: Stevie Nicks, with the Pretenders
When: 7 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Xcel Energy Center, 175 W. Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul
Tickets: $150-$49
Information: 800-745-3000 or xcelenergycenter.com


http://www.twincities.com/2016/12/01...cord-reissues/