On a wet, dreary day in Tampa, it was left to Stevie Nicks to bring us into the light.<\/p>\n
And, boy, did she ever.<\/p>\n
The hall of famer breezed onto the stage Sunday, mostly recovered from the fractured shoulder that delayed her Florida tour stop by 14 weeks.<\/p>\n
Nicks\u2019 primary instrument needed no mending \u2014 that unmatched, unmistakable breathe-only-through-your-mouth patented voice of hers.<\/p>\n
At 77, she remains mesmerizing and enchanting. A total goddess, spreading goosebumps like fairy dust.<\/p>\n
Some great singers can raise the hairs on your forearms every now and again. Try evoking that reaction from your audience five times a song. That\u2019s the indelible Nicks quotient.<\/p>\n
A packed house greeted her enthusiastically as she grabbed hold of a microphone stand wrapped in sequined scarves and launched into the 1950s classic \u201cNot Fade Away.\u201d How fitting that an icon such as Nicks, who has inspired so many modern-day singers for her style, stage presence and songwriting, would open with music from one of her early influences, the great Buddy Holly.<\/p>\n
She wore high black boots, a long charcoal skirt and long blonde hair permed like it could be 1980 all over again.<\/p>\n
Nicks is not a prolific songwriter, but she manages to make them count. \u201cWhen the rain washes you clean, you\u2019ll know,\u201d she crooned during a near flawless version of \u201cDreams,\u201d the first of four Fleetwood Mac songs she would offer.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re half a century removed from when she joined Fleetwood Mac as her romantic partner Lindsey Buckingham\u2019s plus one, before emerging as a primary focal point. Buckingham and Nicks had dropped out of college at San Jose State (My alma mater \u2026 Go Spartans!!) before recording together one barely noticed album. But Mick Fleetwood had heard enough to recognize something special about Buckingham\u2019s finger-picking guitar playing. He was recruited to replace Bob Welch. Buckingham agreed to come along \u2014 but only if the band took his girlfriend, too. The rest, as they say, is history.<\/p>\n
Just a few months ago, Nicks and Buckingham signaled a thawing in their topsy-turvy relationship, jointly posting on social media about their 1973 album being remastered. Will they reunite on stage? One can only hope.<\/p>\n
The audience skewed younger than you might have expected. Mothers brought their daughters \u2014 yards of capes and lace bridging the generations. The blend of ages decked in shawls, fishnet and bolo hats underscored Nicks\u2019 timeless appeal.<\/p>\n
The last time Nicks was on Channelside Drive six years ago, she appeared with Fleetwood Mac, sans Buckingham, who had been kicked out. The band performed Tom Petty\u2019s \u201cFree Fallin\u2019\u201d with former Heartbreakers lead guitarist Mike Campbell newly minted as a member of Fleetwood Mac. She reprised the song Sunday and also played \u201cStop Draggin\u2019 My Heart Around\u201d with her longtime collaborator Waddy Wachtel singing Petty\u2019s part. When in Florida, you must bow down to Petty.<\/p>\n
These are not grueling sets for Nicks. She plays the same 15 songs every four or five days. It\u2019s a parade of hits \u2014 though \u201cLeather and Lace,\u201d \u201cSara\u201d and \u201cSilver Springs\u201d were absent.<\/p>\n
In their place, Nicks shared more personal anecdotes between songs \u2014 about music, relationships and life. I saw her in 1989 at the height of her powers, and she wasn\u2019t nearly as engaged. As her career approaches an endpoint, she\u2019s grown more reflective and introspective on stage. And it delighted the crowd.<\/p>\n
She told one story that spanned more than four minutes about her first recording with Petty.<\/p>\n
And she was the only one who didn\u2019t seem to mind Sunday\u2019s drenching.<\/p>\n
\u201cI made a fantastic like about six minutes of the rain on my hotel window because it was so beautiful,\u201d she told everyone. \u201cI\u2019m going to put it on loop, and I\u2019m going to put it on when I\u2019m going to sleep, and I\u2019m going to sleep to that rain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nicks has always projected a mystical aura \u2014 as someone who might actually twirl backstage around a boiling cauldron, tossing in crystals and eyes of newt. But in relaying her personal stories, she felt real and relatable.<\/p>\n
Her set gained momentum in the home stretch, with \u201cStand Back,\u201d \u201cGold Dust Woman,\u201d \u201cGypsy\u201d and \u201cEdge of Seventeen\u201d before concluding with encores, \u201cRhiannon\u201d and the gutting \u201cLandslide,\u201d made all the more poignant as an images of the late Christine McVie projected on the screen behind her. The entire arena sang along.<\/p>\n
With the exception of \u201cThe Lighthouse,\u201d recorded last year, every song was penned a lifetime ago. Nicks doesn\u2019t need new music to stay relevant. Not when you\u2019ve got that spellbinding voice.<\/p>\n
And she\u2019s still got it. I have the goosebumps to prove it.<\/p>\n
\u201cStop Draggin\u2019 My Heart Around\u201d<\/p>\n
Encore:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a wet, dreary day in Tampa, it was left to Stevie Nicks to bring us into the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[42688,42689,42690,42691,37583,135,137,136],"class_list":["post-75329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-fleetwood-mac","tag-lindsey-buckingham","tag-mick-fleetwood","tag-primary-instrument","tag-stevie-nicks","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}