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/

[SisterNightroad]

Stevie Nicks enchants audience at the X with songs, stories and the spirit of Prince

Stevie Nicks is now 68, but there’s always been a sort of timeless quality about her, like her soul has been kicking around for centuries, wrapping its hosts in shawls, lace and fringe. Remember, this is a woman who crafted the nostalgic, contemplative “Landslide” when she was just 25.

Nicks spent Tuesday night flipping through the back pages of her history at St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center during an engaging and emotional two-plus hour performance for about 10,000 fans. She took full advantage of not having to share the spotlight with Fleetwood Mac and spent plenty of time between songs chatting with the crowd and sharing the secrets behind her many hits.

While Nicks alone would be well worth the price of admission, she invited the Pretenders to open, coaxing Chrissie Hynde back on the road with the band for the first time in four years. Hynde is 65 on paper, but 15 in spirit and sprinted through an hour-long set with ease. She was every bit as engaging with the rockers (“Message of Love,” “Back on the Chain Gang,” “Middle of the Road”) as the ballads, with “I’ll Stand by You” getting a huge reaction from the audience. Hynde crooned “Hymn to Her” with minimal backing and brought chills with her still-supple voice.

Nicks began her set with what looked like an old-school postcard emblazoned with “Greetings from St. Paul” on the big screen behind her. Her latest solo album, “24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault,” features new versions of songs she wrote, but never fully recorded, early in her career. She played selections from it (“Starshine,” “Belle Fleur,” “If You Were My Love”), as well as her solo smashes and a few Fleetwood Mac selections, and told stories about nearly every one of them.

After sharing an anecdote about how Tom Petty gave her the song that kicked off her solo career, “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” Hynde popped out to sing it with her. Sparks flew between the two powerhouses, who clearly enjoyed the chance to perform together, and really should do more of it in the future (for real).

Nicks knows what her crowd wants and gave them a good twirl in the middle of “Gypsy” and played the tough rock chick for “Edge of Seventeen.” But she also let her guard down when she unexpectedly dedicated “Moonlight (A Vampire’s Dream)” to Prince. At the end, she started to speak, got choked up and bolted off the stage, as her band began playing “Stand Back.”

Nicks re-emerged to sing the 1983 hit and after it was over, told her familiar tale about how she was inspired by “Little Red Corvette” to write it, and how Prince ended up playing on the track and how he was always with her whenever she sang it. And, believe it, the Purple One’s spirit was in the house Tuesday night.



http://www.twincities.com/2016/12/06...rit-of-prince/

[SisterNightroad]

Stevie Nicks at the Xcel: Stevie Nicks and the Pretenders at the Xcel Energy Center













More at: http://www.startribune.com/stevie-ni...l/405121275/#1

[SisterNightroad]

Review: Stevie Nicks, storyteller and music icon performs at the X in St. Paul

Stevie Nicks, the Reigning Queen of Rock and Roll performed for over two hours last night and only stopped because she was “nearing curfew” according to her FitBit.

The 68-year-old spent the night telling stories of why and how many of her songs were written, keeping the audience engaged as if they were sitting in her living room versus a packed arena on a cold Minnesota night. With each story, she became more relatable allowing the audience to transport back to a time in their lives with a simple song lyric or note.

Right at the beginning, Nicks told fans that “Starshine” the lead track of her newest album was written in Tom Petty’s basement in 1979. It was amazing to hear deep tracks from her career, "Crying in the Night" which she wrote in 1971 and "24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault," her 2014 album made up of songs that she said fell into a dark gothic box for so long.

"You have to be careful as a writer, so it's not so depressing. You have to figure out a way to tell the story, beautifully, without hurting anyone." Nicks went on to tell the audience how she was sitting in her oceanfront house in Santa Monica and watching the hurricane coverage as Hurricane Katrina was about to slam into New Orleans. "Everyone else is thinking 'Glad that isn't me' meanwhile I grab a pen and paper and start writing. So I did but never found the right time to release "New Orleans" ... until this storytelling tour came along."



http://kstp.com/entertainment/review...-paul/4337472/

[SisterNightroad]

Review: Stevie Nicks and Chrissie Hynde empower each other
Hall of Famers rock St. Paul with familiar and obscure songs.

At first blush, Stevie Nicks teaming up with Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders seems about as odd as, say, Joan Baez and Cher touring together. Same era (and enduring careers) but totally different vibe. But on Tuesday at Xcel Energy Center, ethereal, super-feminine Nicks and snarling, boyish Hynde proved that sisterhood is powerful.

The witchy woman draped in shawls and the tall rocker in Elvis T-shirt and tight jeans, who both front bands of men that landed in the Rock Hall of Fame, delivered empowering, emboldening performances. But their sets had as much in common as a sizzling steak dinner and a bland vegan meal.

Hynde and the Pretenders delivered the sizzle, a combination of their classic rockers full of driving guitars and brand-new material that sounded exciting enough to make you want to buy this year’s album “Alone.”

Hynde, 65, may have had a snarl in her voice but there was a nonstop smile on her face. She clearly relished riding the guitar glory of her band (including ex-Twin Cities guitarist Eric Heywood). She was in clear, forceful voice, pushing the religious-tolerance theme of the catchy, new “Holy Communion” and celebrating the classic marriage of rhythm and melody on “Mystery Achievement” and the harmonica-spiked “Middle of the Road.” She turned the band’s breakthrough 1979 hit “Brass in Pocket” into a confident strut, the right mixture of playfully saucy and agelessly sexy.

Hynde raised the joy when she appeared during Nicks’ headline set, for the duet “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” which Nicks had recorded with Tom Petty. Singing face to face, the two women animated one another, holding an outstretched arm with a hand saying “stop” like the Supremes used to do. It was hard to tell who was having more fun — Nicks and Hynde or the crowd of 10,000.

However, if many of those concertgoers were casual Nicks fans, they might not have enjoyed much of the rest of her 2¼-hour set. Early on, the 68-year-old cautioned that this wasn’t the greatest-hits show that many fans thought they were going to see. No, this was the “dark, gothic trunk of magical, mystical” stuff that didn’t go on her albums.

In other words, it was a storyteller’s evening, with Nicks telling great stories about not necessarily great songs. Unless, of course, you were as enchanted with her history and mythology as she seemed to be.

She wrote this song in Petty’s basement. It didn’t fit on a particular solo album, and she didn’t like the way Fleetwood Mac recorded it, so blah blah blah.

There were long stretches between familiar songs. “Moonlight” was the sixth lesser-known number in a row in the middle of the set, but somehow the mood changed for this piece that has garnered Nicks new millennial fans lost in the “Twilight” zone. Dressed in a full-length white fur coat, the singer was in a zone, leaning into the microphone, singing with profound conviction for the first time all night. By song’s end, it clear why — she was thinking of her late friend Prince, and she couldn’t hold back the tears.

That led to the story how Nicks called Prince to collaborate on “Stand Back” because she’d composed the words to his “Little Red Corvette.” With that 1980s hit (with Minneapolis’ own Ricky Peterson on synthesizer) on Tuesday, Nicks started to gain momentum.

And, of course, she turned to Fleetwood Mac for the home stretch — “Gold Dust Woman,” “Rhiannon” and the always elegant “Landslide.” Ah, the magical, mystical charms of Nicks at last.



http://www.startribune.com/stevie-ni...r/405141856/#1

[SisterNightroad]

Stevie Nicks, the Pretenders deliver knockout one-two punch at Xcel
It was Stevie Nicks' show Tuesday night at St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center, though it felt more like a rock 'n' roll double-header.

It’s probably unfair to call the Pretenders the “opening band" -- it’s the Pretenders.

Chrissie Hynde, author of some of the most recognized rock songs ever, looked every bit the rebel we've loved for years in her jeans and Elvis T-shirt. It can be a dicey proposition to open with brand-new songs, as she and her Pretenders did at the X, but they pulled it off with “Alone” and “Gotta Wait”.

Immediately, you remembered what you've always loved about the Pretenders. Clean, yet crunchy guitars? Check. Laconic vocals that go from nonchalance to rafter-shaking without warning? Check. Attitude? Come on.

“Gotta Wait” was particularly combative and welcome, but when the boom-thwack drums of 1981’s “Message of Love” kicked in, the already appreciative crowd went a little bananas. “The things I’ll do for a handsome man” Hynde said after tossing a guitar pick to a lucky gentleman up front.

It was on.

Hynde bobbed and weaved through her set list full of unforgettable tracks spanning the past 36 years.

1986’s “Hymn to Her” was beautifully staged with largely a cappella vocals, and “Back on the Chain Gang” was dedicated to tourmate Stevie Nicks.

“She’s even better than you think she is," Hynde said. "It’s like traveling with Liz Taylor.”

Hynde praised St. Paul (“It’s cold outside, but there are warm hearts") before launching into the funky “My City Was Gone," complete with stomping bass and multiple guitar freakouts. There was a playful, almost Burrito Brothers-esque feel to the pedal-steel guitar on new track “Holy Commotion," and the version of the Kinks’ “Stop Your Sobbing” was a ringing endorsement to do just that.

“Don’t Get Me Wrong” was as bouncy as you remember, and “Middle of the Road” blazed toward the finish line. Of course, the evening wouldn’t, couldn’t be complete without “Brass in Pocket." This song has always been sexy, and Hynde strutted and posed her way through it for the adoring crowd.

After the Pretenders' super-charged set, an announcement: “Stevie Nicks will be out in 25 minutes.”

The stage was radically altered for Nicks and her big band -- two keyboards, one bass, two guitars, two backup singers, and a drummer. Nicks came out last, naturally, backlit by the projection of a rising sun and surrounded by chandeliers.

Bathed in golden light from top to bottom, the band launched into the joyous, buoyant “Gold and Braid." Obviously, Nicks was wearing her platform boots, flowing capes, and surplus scarves.

The legendary Fleetwood Mac vocalist set the tone early: This was to be a storytellers evening, and the set list would be a little surprising. “I put everything into the dark, gothic trunk of mystery," an on-brand Nicks reported to the crowd.

What came out were hits, deep-cuts, and tracks only recently released from the vault (the current tour is in support of September's 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault, featuring songs Nicks recorded from the '60s through the '80s).

Prior to playing “Stop Dragging My Heart Around," Nicks first brought up Tom Petty, who co-wrote the tune. It seems that in addition to being in Fleetwood Mac, she desperately wanted to be in the Heartbreakers. Hynde came back out to take Petty’s place for the song.

During Fleetwood Mac’s “Gypsy," the crowd got its first defined “twirl” from Nicks, and fans responded with great enthusiasm to her trademark move.

Deep-cut “Moonlight (A Vampire’s Dream)” was inspired by the Twilight films, and an image of Edward and Bella from the movies lurked disconcertingly from the riser.

Still, Nicks dedicated the song to Prince, and like Tom Petty, our late funky genius was another subject she returned to again and again. Nicks shared that “Stand Back” was inspired by hearing “Little Red Corvette” for the first time. She and Prince got together shortly thereafter for a jam session, and “Stand Back” was the result.

Then we got back to the Mac, who rocked Xcel themselves back in 2015. “Gold Dust Woman” featured a supremely eerie extended opening, as the band took their time getting to the majestic, cathartic conclusion.

Has there ever been a more badass guitar track than the one opening “Edge of Seventeen”? Ask Beyoncé, who sampled the 1981 Nicks solo track on Destiny Child's 2001 hit "Bootylicious" Hell, ask anyone. The answer is no. The crowd was waiting for it, and it seemed the band was, too. Swirling imagery played at your senses as the band rocked it out of the park. Perhaps unsurprisingly, video images of doves morphed into photos of Prince.

Triumphant, sweaty, but certainly not done yet, the band left the stage with the Xcel’s crowd on their feet.

Encoring with Fleetwood Mac songs “Rhiannon" and a beautiful version of “Landslide," Nicks explained how the latter told the story of her wrestling with mixed emotions over a lover (cough, cough ... Lindsey Buckingham) in order to continue on in music.

It was a night of magic and rock 'n' roll. As Nicks reminded the crowd repeatedly, dreams do come true. It felt like Hynde and Nicks are both living their own.

Critic's bias: I have kept Stevie Nicks at arm's length for my life so far, but after this show I am (finally) ready to pull her in for a warm hug.

The crowd: Well, no one is getting younger these days, right? Lots of flowing scarves, cloaks, etc.

Overheard In the crowd: “I knew she had a pair of lady balls in her pants, but not a harmonica.” [when Hynde finished “Middle of the Road” on the mouth harp]

Random notebook dump: Here are Stevie Nicks’ Secret Life Tips --
1. Always use analog recording devices.
2. When buying fabric, invest in silk chiffon.
3. If you sing, sing every day.
4. When on a play date with Tom Petty, bring Hershey’s Cocoa Powder in case you need a snack.



http://www.citypages.com/music/stevi...xcel/405229555

[Danielle]

An Evening of Warmth and Passion with Stevie Nicks at Xcel Energy Center

On a cold December Tuesday evening, the Xcel Energy Center was warm with passion and soul as Stevie Nick gave an outstanding performance. For more than two hours, the near capacity audience was on their feet, being treated to stories of how and why songs were written along with an masterful selection of songs that went way back to Stevie’s early days.

Many of the deep tracks have been rarely played live like “Crying in the Night,” a song she wrote in 1971. At one point, Stevie even let the audience know that “tonight, we are going to open the trunk of gothic musical mysteries.” Performing with her superb six-piece band, led by guitarist Waddy Wachtel, along with a pair of backing singers, Nick’s husky but pure voice was at its finest and she was engaging and often funny telling her stories.

Through the evening, we learned that the lead track of the new album, “Starshine”, was written in Tom Petty’s basement, that “Moonlight (A Vampire’s Dream)” was indeed inspired by Bella and Edward and is her favorite song. We also learned that both “Stand Back” and “Edge of Seventeen” were responses to songs by her “strange little friend” Prince.

The audience roared as Stevie’s jumped into her first huge hit “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” on which she was joined by Chrissie Hynde, who along with Wachtel did Petty’s part on the duet. Hits were again played at the end, with “Gold Dust Woman,” “Rihannon” and “Landslide” that brought the show to the close.

The show definitely had a beautiful warm vibe. Stevie’s presence on stage was ever magical and the tone and clarity of her voice remains everlasting.












http://twincitiesmedia.net/blog/an-e...energy-center/

[SisterNightroad]

Review and photos: Stevie Nicks and the Pretenders, at Xcel Energy Center, share the love and celebrate Prince

If you could buy stock in musical reputations, Stevie Nicks’s would have been a bargain investment 20, 10, even five years ago. The behemoth popularity of Fleetwood Mac blinded a lot of critics who were too cool for school in the ’70s to the fact that the band’s accessible and sonically pristine creations were underpinned by timeless songcraft, while Nicks’s solo hits like “Edge of Seventeen” and “Stand Back” were regarded as video fodder for the MTV era.

Time passed, though, and new generations of listeners continued gravitating towards the music. The Mac attack continued, of course, and critics ranging from tastemaker Jessica Hopper to our own listeners have no problem placing Rumours among the all-time greats.

Meanwhile, Nicks’s solo catalog continued to exert a fascination; not just for those fresh-sounding singles, but for deep tracks like “Think About It.” Writer Emily Gould, who’s gone from a pioneering confessional blogger to an indie-publishing influential, took the title of her 2010 memoir from a lyric in that song: “And the heart says ‘Danger!’/ And the heart says, ‘Whatever.'” Nicks is even sampled on the new Bon Iver album, with permission but, at her request, uncredited: a backstage clip of Nicks singing “Wild Heart” appears in “10 d E A T h b R E a s T ⊠ ⊠.”

Last night at the Xcel Energy Center, the generously sized audience included a few of the predictably clueless Fleetwood Mac fans (“Play ‘Little Lies’!” yelled the woman behind me, seeming not to realize that’s a Christine McVie song) but many more adoring acolytes who hung on every word of what Nicks has described as a “storytelling tour.”

The tour comes on the heels of a 2014 album called 24 Karat Gold — consisting of rerecorded versions of rarities and demos spanning Nicks’s career — and expanded reissues of her first two solo albums, Bella Donna (1981) and The Wild Heart (1983). From the stage last night, Nicks repeatedly addressed the challenge she’d faced in building a viable solo career while remaining an active member of Fleetwood Mac.

In particular, she described compromising by agreeing to include on Bella Donna one song she didn’t write: “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” by Tom Petty and Mike Campbell of the Heartbreakers. Recorded as a duet with Petty, the song became the solo hit Nicks needed, and she was off to the races.

Last night, the crowd roared with approval as a new duet partner sauntered on stage for that number: Chrissie Hynde, whose Pretenders opened the show. The admiration and affection between the two women was clearly mutual as they shared Nicks’s original lead vocal, with guitarist Waddy Wachtel chiming in with Petty’s answering lines about “being your own girl.” Yes, thank you very much, they would.

Nicks isn’t one of the first names typically associated with Prince, but in fact he was an important inspiration who played a key role in her solo career — literally played, as in wrote and performed the indelible keyboard hook for Wild Heart smash “Stand Back.” Nicks played that song after dedicating the preceding number, “Moonlight (A Vampire’s Dream),” to “my friend.”

She then recounted how she was inspired to write “Stand Back” after hearing “Little Red Corvette” on the radio during her honeymoon with Kim Anderson; they divorced the following year, but Nicks said Anderson was present at the arena last night. “Whenever I sing ‘Stand Back,'” said Nicks, “Prince is standing next to me.”

(Prince wasn’t the only local hero who got a shout-out: Nicks’s band includes Minneapolis organist Ricky Peterson, and the Pretenders are touring with longtime St. Paul resident Eric Heywood on pedal steel. Both Nicks and Hynde made a point of welcoming their sidemen home.)

As Nicks dug through what she described as her “dark gothic trunk of magical mystery songs,” she had plenty more stories to tell. She brought out “the original Bella Donna cape” (as seen on the sleeve of the “After the Glitter Fades” single) for the album’s title song, and she talked about recording “Starshine” in Tom Petty’s basement. She complained about her Fitbit (“Do we really need to know how many steps we take?”), and she shared plenty of motivational words. “Just reach up there and grab that Bella Donna star!”

Still in strong voice at age 68, Nicks said repeatedly that “dreams really do come true” as she reminisced about her youth in Phoenix, writing the songs that became beloved classics like “Landslide” — a song she called “the story of my life.” Behind her, video screens nested in a proscenium arrangement showed appropriately dreamy graphics: woodland scenes, roiling water, vintage shots of Nicks — including, before the encore, the image of a 1983 flyer from when she played the St. Paul Civic Center, where the Xcel Energy Center now stands.

Hynde, who said during her set that Nicks is “even better than you think she’d be,” summoned some of that earth-mother energy for ballads like “Hymn to Her” and “I’ll Stand By You,” but left seasonal favorite “2000 Miles” on the table in favor of strutting favorites from the band’s early releases. She also played a few songs from Alone, the Pretenders’ new album produced by Dan Auerbach.

The easygoing set — Hynde can summon snarling rage in other contexts, but it’s hard to be too angry when you’re in the presence of Stevie Nicks — offered a glimpse at what it might have looked like if Hynde ever achieved the arena-level fame her talent deserves. The joint bill is a fascinating and gratifying pairing: the uniting of two women from the same generation who forged very different paths to iconic status. Kinks fan Hynde went to London and became a fiercely independent rock pioneer, while Nicks found her way to sunny California and hooked up with a band who’d crossed the Atlantic in the other direction.

On this tour, the two stand together basking in their well-earned admiration. Intent on inspiring others, Nicks sent us off with a blessing. “Play music! Sing! Be loved! Love you!”

The Pretenders Setlist
Alone
The Wait
Message of Love
Private Life
Down the Wrong Way
Hymn to Her
Back on the Chain Gang
My City Was Gone
Holy Commotion
Stop Your Sobbing
Don’t Get Me Wrong
Mystery Achievement
Middle of the Road
Brass in Pocket

Stevie Nicks Setlist
Gold and Braid
If Anyone Falls
Stop Dragging My Heart Around (with Chrissie Hynde)
Belle Fleur
Gypsy
Wild Heart
Bella Donna
Enchanted
New Orleans
Starshine
Moonlight (A Vampire’s Dream)
Stand Back
Crying in the Night
If You Were My Love
Gold Dust Woman
Edge of Seventeen
Encore
Rhiannon
Landslide



http://More pictures here: http://bl...ebrate-prince/

[bombaysaffires]

She then recounted how she was inspired to write “Stand Back” after hearing “Little Red Corvette” on the radio during her honeymoon with Kim Anderson; they divorced the following year, but Nicks said Anderson was present at the arena last night.”

[SisterNightroad]

RECAP: St Paul, MN – Xcel Energy Center

On Tuesday night, Stevie Nicks performed at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, MN — the 21st show of the 24 Karat Gold Tour.

Performing in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, where Prince Rogers Nelson was born and raised, seemed to weigh heavily on Stevie’s mind, as she spoke emotionally about the late music icon. A bit choked up, she unexpectedly dedicated “Moonlight (A Vampire’s Dream)” to him, which she’s previously identified as her “most favorite song [she’s] ever written” at past shows. After performing the song, Stevie began to tell the story of the 2011 In Your Dreams song, but became overwhelmed with emotion and quickly exited the stage. After an unplanned extended instrumental introduction to “Stand Back” (the next song in the set), she finally returned to the stage to perform the hit 1983 single. Afterwards, she also told the crowd, ‘I don’t want to get hysterical again,’ before going into the story behind her and Prince’s famous “Stand Back” collaboration (clip below). Stevie mentioned that her ex-husband (former record executive Kim Anderson) was at this evening’s show, which added more context to the story. (Stevie was married to Kim when she wrote the lyrics to “Stand Back” and had been riding in a car with him when the two heard Prince’s “Little Red Corvette” playing on the radio.)

Stand Back

“There is a story, a quick story It’s not really a quick story, but I don’t want to like get hysterical again, so I’ll just say that Prince and I actually — unbeknownst to Prince, of course, when I was writing it — wrote ‘Stand Back’ together. I was…this is so funny, my one and only husband happens to be here tonight. Hello, husband! You’re out there somewhere. Um, uh…but what happened was that, that my then-husband — my only husband actually I ever had — were driving on our honeymoon to, um, Santa Barbara, and this song ‘Little Red Corvette’ came on. And I was just like thrilled with his song. And I started — yes, oh yes, I had pencil and paper in the car — started like writing these words as I’m singing along, you know, and, and my husband’s like, ‘Well, you know, it’s already his song, you really can’t.’ And I was like, ‘Oh yes, I can! I’ll call him and I’ll just, I’ll sing it for him on the phone, and he’ll like it.’ And so, what..exactly what I did, so we have to pull over to a drug store and buy a cassette — cassette, oh yes — and record it when we get to the like San Ysidro Ranch, where we’re going for our honeymoon, right? He’s like, “OK, great!’ So we do, we get the recording equipment, we go —which is only this big (Stevie makes a small square with her hands) — we go up to our room and we…I sing over ‘Little Red Corvette’ and even my then-husband, his name is Kim, Kim said, ‘It’s good, it’s really good.” So um, yeah, you should call him and tell him that you’ve done this.’ So I said,“Of course I’m gonna, I’m honest, so.’

We go back to Los Angeles, and I go into Sunset Sound Recording Studio, and I find somebody who knows how to get in touch with Prince. And so, I call him and I don’t even think he’s in Los Angeles, but he is. And I said, ‘Well…’ I told him the quick story, and I said, ‘So can you come over? And he said, “Well, sure.” And so he did, he came over! And um…I know! And he walks in and he is dressed to the nines. He is the purple one, gorgeous. And I’m stunned you know because, because I’m also dressed to the nines because we, that’s how me and the girls dressed when we went into our recording sessions. So we’ll all totally dressed up. And so he comes in and he plays synthesizer, and he plays organ, and he plays piano, and does a little guitar, and, and he likes it, and he gives me permission, and I said, you know, ‘I mean, it’s half of yours, right?’ And he’s like, ‘OK.’ And he’s — whoosh! — gone in a puff of purple poof, gone.

And that was my relationship with Prince for many years, which was, I would just see him for a little while and then he’d just be gone, you know? He was just like that amazing kind of strange friend that just kind of came in and out of your life. So anyway, that’s… The great thing now is that whenever you hear ‘Stand Back’ or ‘Little Red Corvette,’ you can like kind of put them together because they are together, and they’ll always be together forever…and I will always have that. So whenever I sing ‘Stand Back,’ he’s always right here standing next to me. So um, anyway, that’s the story.”



More here: http://stevie-nicks.info/2016/12/rec...energy-center/