Do you think Stevie should do a new solo album?

[Amlyn]

Here's my take. Sorry, it's long, but once I got going, I couldn't stop.

Stevie should do a new album if she feels she has something to express and share with us and not just for the sake of going through the motions. She needs to take all the what-ifs that exist in today's music world for putting out an album out of the equation and decide if it is something she still has passion for.

If we go back to basics, relaying a message or sharing an experience through song is the foundation for the success of all the great singer/songwriters. Whether the message be completely an account of their own experience, or someone else's, or even somewhat fiction, there was something that sparked the need for them to put those thoughts into words and put those words into a song and those songs into a performance. It was a formula that has worked for many, many years.

Then 29 years ago a music video premiered on a new network called MTV - Video Killed the Radio Star. Talk about a premonition. As much as I love music videos and still watch Totally 80's on VH1 Classic, this really was the beginning of the end for the mystique of the rock star. Ok, so maybe for 10-15 years, it was a good thing. We were able to listen to and watch our idols and dress like them and dance like them and just want to be them. But when MTV became anything but Music TV, it was a sign of the times. The music world was changing. With the inception of the internet and the boom with technology over the past 15 years, we are watching concerts on youtube from the comforts of our couches, we are downloading music in 20 seconds from our favorite music site, we are blogging about how off-tune Taylor Swift is before she can even finish her song. It's all there for us. No more mystery. And for who? The same regurgitated pretty to produce kids these record companies are signing over and over again. Somewhere in this cash is king formula, the general public has lost the reason why we listen to music. Everything these performers do becomes fodder for tabloids and blogs and websites, and at the end of the day...this is what is selling the music, not the music itself. What happened to the emotional experience and connection to lyrics and the music? Only someone who is a true musical artist like Stevie can and needs to bring us back to the reason why we listen to music in the first place.

Stevie needs to dismiss all the possible scenarios that can play out with a new album like will my music sell? Will I make any money if everyone steals off the internet? Is there anyone out there who wants to hear me anymore? All questions we've heard her state as a problem with today's music in one way, shape or form. She needs to just go with what she feels and not be so scared of what could happen. She doesn't need to rebrand herself. Last night's musical performance proved that based on all the positive publicity and labels like "legendary" and "veteran." History has proven you don't need to mess with a classic. If she really believed anything else, we would hear anything other than the Rumours history in every single interview she's done the past umpteenth years.

Personally, I'd love to see her put out a new album. It's been almost a decade since she's focused her energy on something new. Something must have inspired this woman in the past ten years. The story can't really be over yet.