Sheryl Deja Vu

[michelej1]

[Just putting this online because I did a web search and didn't see it anywhere else yet]

Albuquerque Journal (NM), Albuquerque Tribune

August 8, 2001

Rain, Wind Add Drama to Colorful Nicks' Show


Leanne Potts Journal Staff Writer

* Near sell-out crowd doesn't mind being drenched as singer shows her talent has not diminished

Let's hear it for being a rock 'n' roll survivor.

Stevie Nicks, she of gauze-and-lace-wrapped fairy princess fame, sounded the best she has in more than 15 years at her show Tuesday night at Journal Pavilion. The voice that had been reduced to a croak by years of "Behind The Music"-worthy abuse was back, an earthy mix of grit and warmth.

"I'm sorry about the rain, but sometimes it just rains," Nicks said to the near-sellout crowd of 11,000 who got soaked by a chilly rain for most of her 90-minute set. "We'll get through this."

Nicks hasn't lost her trademark witchy glamour. She wore a black flowing dress that she draped in a miniwardrobe of colored scarves. And her set resembled an overgrown Southern courtyard, with vine-wrapped columns on either side of the stage and vases of trailing vines scattered among the band members.

The wind from the rainstorm enhanced the whole Stevie image. Her waist-length hair blew, her gauzy skirt blew, her scarves blew and the fringe on the mike stand blew. Very dramatic. Every couple of songs she changed scarves very Stevie. She even twirled on one song, sparking MTV flashbacks circa 1983.

Clutching an umbrella, Nicks opened with "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around," the duet she recorded with Tom Petty in the early '80s. Bassist Al Ortiz sang Petty's part.

Nicks also played homage to her friend Petty when she sang his "I Need To Know" for an encore.

She sang some Fleetwood Mac-era songs, including "Rhiannon" and "Gold Dust Woman." She performed songs from her 1980s-era solo work: "Stand Back" and "Edge of Seventeen," the latter of which has gotten new life since Destiny's Child included a sampling of the song's guitar riff on its hit single "Bootylicious." And from her latest release, "Trouble In Shangri-La," she performed "Bombay Sapphires," "Sorcerer," "Planets of the Universe," "Every Day" and "Too Far From Texas."

None of her famous "Shangri-La" collaborators was with her, not even Sheryl Crow, who has made guest appearances at several dates on Nicks' tour.

Nicks mentioned onetime collaborator, partner and Fleetwood Mac bandmate Lindsey Buckingham in the intro to several of the songs. "I'm not mad at him, and he's not mad at me anymore," she told the crowd before singing "Planets," which she described as an angry song about the couple's breakup.

She repeatedly thanked the crowd for enduring the rain. "Are you all OK?" she asked at one point, sounding like somebody's cool mom. "You're all going to have pneumonia tomorrow."

Surprising words from the woman who used to be the siren of rock. But like her music, Nicks has aged gracefully.