Atlanta Chastain Park

[michelej1]

By Melissa Ruggieri
Stevie Nicks takes new songs on the road

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
http://www.accessatlanta.com/AccessA...w-1080475.html

Earlier this year, Stevie Nicks embarked on one of the more interesting novelty tours in recent years, with fellow classic rock royalty Rod Stewart.

Nicks joked that she wasn’t really sure what to expect since she barely saw Stewart before their first show together.

“He’s not really a rehearser. He feels he’s already rehearsed for 33 years,” she said with a husky laugh.

But despite some slapdash elements to the experience, Stewart was “charming and fun and witty and English. I do well with English people,” said Nicks, an engaging conversationalist herself, in a recent chat with a handful of journalists.

Now, she’s back on the road for a monthlong tour of her own that comes to Chastain Park Aug. 15, and eager to share the songs from “In Your Dreams,” her first solo record in a decade, which arrived in May.

The toughest part about the Stewart jaunt, she said, was keeping her set to 75 minutes. A self-described talker, Nicks, 63, prefers to linger during a two-hour show, sharing stories with the audience about the origin of songs and sprinkling in new material amid standbys from her Fleetwood Mac and solo catalog such as “Edge of Seventeen,” “Dreams” and “Gold Dust Woman.”

At the end of May, she previewed her solo tour with a show at the Wiltern in Los Angeles and performed the majority of “In Your Dreams,” a format she intends to keep for this outing.

“The reviews were that the old songs were great, but there was a special light around the new songs,” she said.

Nicks produced and co-wrote much of “In Your Dreams” with Dave Stewart (of Eurythmics fame) and leaned on him and another old friend for inspiration.

“Dave, he’s the caterpillar on top of the crazy hookah in Tom Petty’s ‘Don’t Come Around Here No More’ video. He’s just that crazy, magic man,” Nicks said, unleashing another throaty laugh. “He’s the wildest guy I’ve ever known, and when you’ve been part of a duo, the spirit of Annie Lennox [Stewart's partner in the Eurythmics] and Lindsey Buckingham float with you.”

Speaking of Buckingham, the Fleetwood Mac guitarist-singer, with whom Nicks' name will be forever linked, appears on “In Your Dreams” as well, singing and playing guitar on “Soldier’s Angel,” a bracing exploration of the heart of warriors.

The song began as a poem in 2005, after Nicks made one of her numerous visits to the just-shuttered Walter Reed Army Medical Center in D.C. Nicks told people for years that one day it would be a song, but after several attempts to record it something was blocking her emotionally and mentally.

“I said, ‘We’ve got to call Lindsey.’ He listened to it for a week, then came to my house and we recorded it live in my entryway. He came back the next day and put more guitar on it and a second harmony,” she said. “Lindsey saved the day. That was my most revered and sacred song on the record.”

Nicks has a special relationship with the injured soldiers she visited frequently at Walter Reed, usually staying for 10 or 11 hours at a time and providing them with music-filled iPods.

“A lot of these kids didn’t even know who I was because they were so young, but that didn’t matter to me. I just wanted to give them music because it’s rehabilitation,” she said.

“[Music] would break the ice and they would open up to me and talk to me. I have many secrets that I carry. I probably know more about the war than most people, and their secrets are safe with me. It has been a life changer. I walked in there a rock star with very few problems and walked out of there a soldier’s mother.”

Concert preview

Stevie Nicks. 8 p.m. Aug. 15. $40-$75. Chastain Park Amphitheatre, 4469 Stella Drive, Atlanta. This show is a no-table setup. No coolers or carry-ins allowed. 1-800-745-3000

[TwistedGypsy]

Thanks! I can't wait and I'm ready for a two hour show. I haven't gotten a ticket yet, I'm still waiting for something in the first 3 or as close as possible. I'm going to do my best to try and plan a get together to for all us Atlanta people. When its gets closer to the show I'll throw some details out or take any suggestions.

[mylittledemon]

I saw her at Chastain 10 years ago... That's crazy!!

[TwistedGypsy]

Originally Posted by mylittledemon

I saw her at Chastain 10 years ago... That's crazy!!

For TISL in July? If so I was there too. It was my first Stevie show and this one coming up will be my 10th.

[J.Miller]

We bought our tickets today.We are going to be seated in Right Box 2 Row D. The pit tickets are getting too expensive. LauraTN and I are looking forward to a great show.

[mylittledemon]

Originally Posted by TwistedGypsy

For TISL in July? If so I was there too. It was my first Stevie show and this one coming up will be my 10th.

Yup! I was on the front row of the right orchestra.... damn it was hot that day wasn't it?

[markolas]

Originally Posted by michelej1

At the end of May, she previewed her solo tour with a show at the Wiltern in Los Angeles and performed the majority of “In Your Dreams,” a format she intends to keep for this outing.

Oh, that makes me happy. I think Dallas is like the 3rd show or something, so maybe she won't have dropped too many songs by then.

[WildHearted]

I'll be there!

I'll have to check my tickets to see where my seats are exactly.

[TwistedGypsy]

Originally Posted by mylittledemon

Yup! I was on the front row of the right orchestra.... damn it was hot that day wasn't it?

I had long hair then and it was stuck to my back! My mom and I were in the back orchestra. I was a newbie to the TM game back then.

[mylittledemon]

haha yes indeed it was hot! The only thing I really remember about the show was that she came out wearing a top hat towards the end...

[michelej1]

Toledo Free Press, August 10, 2011
[Same interview, but a few of the quotes are new]
http://www.toledofreepress.com/2011/...ter-on-aug-19/

Stevie Nicks to play at Huntington Center on Aug. 19Written by Vicki L. Kroll
Stevie Nicks has dreams she likes to sell. Her crystal visions of magic, eternal love and enchanting characters beckon. It’s those poetic fairy tales shrouded in mist set to music — and that voice.

As the shawl-wearing rock star twirls through the mystical seasons of her life, fans still cry out for “Rhiannon.” And “Edge of Seventeen,” “Dreams,” “Landslide,” “Stand Back,” “Gold Dust Woman.”

She’s one of the few artists with a successful solo career while in a band. With Fleetwood Mac, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 and received the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 2003. The group has sold 48.5 million discs, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, and Nicks solo has tallied 10.5 million.

“In Your Dreams,” her seventh solo record, debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 in May, and the music is hauntingly familiar. Dave Stewart, formerly of Eurythmics, co-produced the disc and co-wrote seven songs.

“When you’ve been part of a duo like Dave and I have, the spirit of Annie Lennox and Lindsey Buckingham float with you,” Nicks said during a teleconference with four newspapers, including Toledo Free Press Star.

She talked about what it was like during the nine months when Stewart was at her house working on the record.

“The fireplace is on, and all the moons and stars are on the ceiling, and it’s all totally this magic living room that I live in, and he just starts playing his guitar and he’s like, “Well, come on, let’s go ahead.” And I’m like a deer in the headlights: Oh my God! Does he expect me to sit here and write a song with him? With him in the room? So I did, I just started kind of reciting my words in a sing-songy way, and that song in 15 minutes became the third to the last song on the record, “You May Be the One.’”

Nicks recalled how they talked about poetry — and resurrected a gem.

“I said I wrote a song once that was to an Edgar Allan Poe poem named ‘Annabel Lee.’ And he said, ‘Can we hear it?’ And I said, ‘Sure,’ and I went and got the demo out of the vault and played it for he and [co-producer] Glen Ballard and they loved it. They loved the fact that I had written it when I was 17, and they loved the fact that I didn’t even make a demo of it until 1996, so it lived in my head from 1965 until 1996.”

The singer said “Secret Love,” another song from the new disc, was written in 1975.

“When I first joined Fleetwood Mac in the fifth day of 1975, we — both Lindsey and I — already had a ton of songs that didn’t make it on the ‘Buckingham Nicks’ record that were really good, like, for instance, ‘Rhiannon,’ so we would just put the songs away.

“And then you join Fleetwood Mac and you have three writers,” she said. “And you’re writing like crazy because you’re experiencing this new band and this crazy thing — and you only get three or four songs.

“So then two years goes by until you do your next record, and you’re writing all through that two years — you’re on the road, I’m writing in my journal,” Nicks said. “By the time we get to ‘Rumours,’ I’ve got all the songs that didn’t go on ‘Fleetwood Mac’ that also aren’t going to fit on ‘Rumours.’ So I call it the song vault, so all those little songs go into the vault. And then every time I do a record, I peruse through all those songs.”

The songwriter has a few thoughts about casting musical spells.

“You just need to be a good storyteller,” she said. “The truth speaks volumes. So that’s what I always tried to do was be totally truthful, and none of my songs are made-up stories, they’re all real, they all came out of my journals, they all came out of my prose writing, which someday I’ll put into a book you guys all will get to read.”

In the meantime, fans can see Nicks’ “In Your Dreams” tour, which will stop at the Huntington Center on Aug. 19. Tickets for the 8 p.m. concert range from $49.50 to $125.

The 63-year-old talked about prepping for the tour with a show at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles.

“We weeded,” she said. “‘Stand Back,’ ‘Edge of Seventeen,’ ‘Gold Dust Woman,’ ‘Sorcerer,’ ‘Landslide,’ we did the musts, the must-haves, and then we did seven new songs. And the reviews that came back from that show were like the old songs were great, but there was a special light around the new songs that we haven’t seen in a long time.”

[vivfox]

Originally Posted by michelej1

“We weeded,” she said. “‘Stand Back,’ ‘Edge of Seventeen,’ ‘Gold Dust Woman,’ ‘Sorcerer,’ ‘Landslide,’ we did the musts, the must-haves, and then we did seven new songs. And the reviews that came back from that show were like the old songs were great, but there was a special light around the new songs that we haven’t seen in a long time.”

Since when has Sorceror become a "must have?" We weeded huh? Smoke some more weed Stevie.

[markolas]

I like Sorcerer a lot - it might very well be my favorite song from TISL.

[DavidMn]

This will be my next show. Who's joining me there?

[TwistedGypsy]

It's about time to start planning. I haven't got a ticket yet. I'm getting nervous like always but I have lucked out closer to the show and the day of but for the Heart and Soul tour I did not. Maybe because of Rod but I'm ready to start seeing something close. I checked Stub Hub and they have nothing. So I'm thinking once TM gets all those back and processes them or what not some good stuff will come up.
I'm thinking we just meet up at the show and go from there. Also its real easy to hear the soundcheck since there is just a wood fence around the venue.
If anyone sees anything close give a heads up!
Can't wait to see you guys!