STEVIE NICKS
''24 KARAT GOLD: SONGS FROM THE VAULT''
OCTOBER 6 2014
72:16
1 - Starshine 4:02
2 - If You Were My Love 4:57
3 - Mabel Normand 4:50
4 - Twisted 4:25
5 - 24 Karat Gold 4:06
6 - Belle Fleur 5:32
7 - All The Beautiful Worlds 4:57
8 - Lady 4:55
9 - I Don't Care (Michael Campbell, Waddy Wachtel) 6:07
10 - Watch Chain 4:05
11 - Hard Advice 4:16
12 - Carousel (Vanessa Carlton)3:16
13 - Blue Water (Stevie Nicks, Sharon Celani) 4:23
14 - Cathouse Blues 2:45
15 - The Dealer 4:34
Tracks by Nicks, except as indicated
Dave Stewart - Guitar
Waddy Wachtel - Guitar, backing vocals
Stevie Nicks - Vocals
Sharon Celani - Backing vocals
Lady Antebellum - Backing vocals on "Blue Water"
Lori Nicks - Backing vocals
Michael Campbell - Guitar on "Starshine" and "I Don't Care"
Davey Johnstone - Guitar on "Belle Fleur" and "If You Were My Love"
Ann Marie Calhoun - Violin
Tom Bukovac - Guitar
Michael Rhodes - Bass
Dan Dugmore - Banjo
Chad Cromwell - Drums
Benmont Tench - Keyboards
Lenny Castro - Percussion
REVIEW
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
With the subtitle "Songs from the Vault," you'd be forgiven if you thought 24 Karat Gold was an archival collection of unreleased material and, in a way, you'd be right. 24 Karat Gold does indeed unearth songs Nicks wrote during her heyday -- the earliest dates from 1969, the latest from 1995, with most coming from her late-'70s/early-'80s peak; the ringer is a cover of Vanessa Carlton's 2011 tune "Carousel," which could easily be mistaken for Stevie -- but these aren't the original demos, they're new versions recorded with producer Dave Stewart. Running away from his ornate track record -- his production for Stevie's 2011 record In Your Dreams was typically florid -- Stewart pays respect to Nicks' original songs and period style by keeping things relatively simple while drafting in sympathetic supporting players including guitarists Waddy Wachtel and Davey Johnstone and Heartbreakers Benmont Tench and Mike Campbell. It's certainly not an exacting re-creation of Sound City but Stewart adheres to the slick, hazy feel of supremely well-appointed professional studios, so 24 Karat Gold has a tactile allure. Sonically, it's bewitching -- the best-sounding record she's made since 1983's The Wild Heart but, substance-wise, it's her best since that album, too. If there aren't many remnants of the flinty, sexy rocker of "Stand Back" (the opening "Starshine" is an exception to the rule), there's enough seductive, shimmering soft rock and the emphasis on Laurel Canyon hippie folk-rock feels right and natural. Retrospectively, it's a surprise that Nicks sat on these songs for years, but that only indicates just how purple a patch she had during Fleetwood Mac's glory days. It's a good thing she dug through her back pages and finished these songs, as she's wound up with one of her strongest albums.
BIOGRAPHY
by Jason Ankeny
Famed for her mystical chanteuse image, singer/songwriter Stevie Nicks enjoyed phenomenal success not only as a solo artist but also as a key member of Fleetwood Mac. Stephanie Lynn Nicks was born May 26, 1948, in Phoenix, AZ; the granddaughter of a frustrated country singer, she began performing at the age of four, and occasionally sang at the tavern owned by her parents. Nicks started writing songs in her mid-teens, and joined her first group, the Changing Times, while attending high school in California.
During her senior year, Nicks met fellow student Lindsey Buckingham, with whom she formed the band Fritz along with friends Javier Pacheco and Calvin Roper. Between 1968 and 1971, the group became a popular attraction on the West Coast music scene, opening for Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Ultimately, tensions arose over the amount of attention paid by fans to Nicks' pouty allure, and after three years Fritz disbanded; Buckingham remained her partner, however, and soon became her lover as well.
After moving to Los Angeles, the duo recorded its 1973 debut LP, Buckingham Nicks. Despite a cover that featured the couple nude, the album flopped; however, it caught the attention of the members of Fleetwood Mac, who invited Buckingham and Nicks to join their ranks in 1974. In quick time, the revitalized group achieved unparalleled success: after the LP Fleetwood Mac topped the charts in 1975, the band recorded 1977's Rumours, which sold over 17 million copies and stood for several years as the best-selling album of all time.
Major hit singles like "Dreams" and "Rhiannon" made Nicks a focal point of Fleetwood Mac, and in 1981 she took time off from the group to record her solo debut, Bella Donna, which hit number one on the strength of the Top 20 hits "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" (a duet with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers), "Leather and Lace" (a duet with Don Henley), and "Edge of Seventeen (Just Like the White Winged Dove)." After a return to Fleetwood Mac for the 1982 album Mirage (which featured her hit "Gypsy"), Nicks released her second solo effort, The Wild Heart, highlighted by the Top Five smash "Stand Back." Rock a Little, which featured the single "Talk to Me," followed in 1985.
After a long hiatus (during which time Nicks was treated for a chemical dependency problem), Fleetwood Mac reunited for the album Tango in the Night; The Other Side of the Mirror, Nicks' first solo record in four years, followed in 1989. After a series of lineup changes and dropping sales figures, she left Fleetwood Mac in 1993 and issued Street Angel a year later. In 1997, she rejoined the reunited Fleetwood Mac on tour and on the album The Dance. In 1998 Nicks, along with her Fleetwood Mac bandmates, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the same year that her three-disc Enchanted box set landed in stores.
Nicks returned to the studio in 2001 with friends Macy Gray, Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, and Dixie Chick Natalie Maines for the solo album Trouble in Shangri-La, and again in 2003 for the Fleetwood Mac reunion album Say You Will. Reprise released the CD/DVD Crystal Visions: The Very Best of Stevie Nicks in 2007, but it wasn't until 2011 -- almost a decade to the day after Trouble in Shangri-La's release -- that Nicks returned with a new solo album. Produced by Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard, In Your Dreams found her singing a mix of Bob Dylan-inspired folk songs, Italian love ballads, and rock anthems.
''24 KARAT GOLD: SONGS FROM THE VAULT''
OCTOBER 6 2014
72:16
1 - Starshine 4:02
2 - If You Were My Love 4:57
3 - Mabel Normand 4:50
4 - Twisted 4:25
5 - 24 Karat Gold 4:06
6 - Belle Fleur 5:32
7 - All The Beautiful Worlds 4:57
8 - Lady 4:55
9 - I Don't Care (Michael Campbell, Waddy Wachtel) 6:07
10 - Watch Chain 4:05
11 - Hard Advice 4:16
12 - Carousel (Vanessa Carlton)3:16
13 - Blue Water (Stevie Nicks, Sharon Celani) 4:23
14 - Cathouse Blues 2:45
15 - The Dealer 4:34
Tracks by Nicks, except as indicated
Dave Stewart - Guitar
Waddy Wachtel - Guitar, backing vocals
Stevie Nicks - Vocals
Sharon Celani - Backing vocals
Lady Antebellum - Backing vocals on "Blue Water"
Lori Nicks - Backing vocals
Michael Campbell - Guitar on "Starshine" and "I Don't Care"
Davey Johnstone - Guitar on "Belle Fleur" and "If You Were My Love"
Ann Marie Calhoun - Violin
Tom Bukovac - Guitar
Michael Rhodes - Bass
Dan Dugmore - Banjo
Chad Cromwell - Drums
Benmont Tench - Keyboards
Lenny Castro - Percussion
REVIEW
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
With the subtitle "Songs from the Vault," you'd be forgiven if you thought 24 Karat Gold was an archival collection of unreleased material and, in a way, you'd be right. 24 Karat Gold does indeed unearth songs Nicks wrote during her heyday -- the earliest dates from 1969, the latest from 1995, with most coming from her late-'70s/early-'80s peak; the ringer is a cover of Vanessa Carlton's 2011 tune "Carousel," which could easily be mistaken for Stevie -- but these aren't the original demos, they're new versions recorded with producer Dave Stewart. Running away from his ornate track record -- his production for Stevie's 2011 record In Your Dreams was typically florid -- Stewart pays respect to Nicks' original songs and period style by keeping things relatively simple while drafting in sympathetic supporting players including guitarists Waddy Wachtel and Davey Johnstone and Heartbreakers Benmont Tench and Mike Campbell. It's certainly not an exacting re-creation of Sound City but Stewart adheres to the slick, hazy feel of supremely well-appointed professional studios, so 24 Karat Gold has a tactile allure. Sonically, it's bewitching -- the best-sounding record she's made since 1983's The Wild Heart but, substance-wise, it's her best since that album, too. If there aren't many remnants of the flinty, sexy rocker of "Stand Back" (the opening "Starshine" is an exception to the rule), there's enough seductive, shimmering soft rock and the emphasis on Laurel Canyon hippie folk-rock feels right and natural. Retrospectively, it's a surprise that Nicks sat on these songs for years, but that only indicates just how purple a patch she had during Fleetwood Mac's glory days. It's a good thing she dug through her back pages and finished these songs, as she's wound up with one of her strongest albums.
BIOGRAPHY
by Jason Ankeny
Famed for her mystical chanteuse image, singer/songwriter Stevie Nicks enjoyed phenomenal success not only as a solo artist but also as a key member of Fleetwood Mac. Stephanie Lynn Nicks was born May 26, 1948, in Phoenix, AZ; the granddaughter of a frustrated country singer, she began performing at the age of four, and occasionally sang at the tavern owned by her parents. Nicks started writing songs in her mid-teens, and joined her first group, the Changing Times, while attending high school in California.
During her senior year, Nicks met fellow student Lindsey Buckingham, with whom she formed the band Fritz along with friends Javier Pacheco and Calvin Roper. Between 1968 and 1971, the group became a popular attraction on the West Coast music scene, opening for Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Ultimately, tensions arose over the amount of attention paid by fans to Nicks' pouty allure, and after three years Fritz disbanded; Buckingham remained her partner, however, and soon became her lover as well.
After moving to Los Angeles, the duo recorded its 1973 debut LP, Buckingham Nicks. Despite a cover that featured the couple nude, the album flopped; however, it caught the attention of the members of Fleetwood Mac, who invited Buckingham and Nicks to join their ranks in 1974. In quick time, the revitalized group achieved unparalleled success: after the LP Fleetwood Mac topped the charts in 1975, the band recorded 1977's Rumours, which sold over 17 million copies and stood for several years as the best-selling album of all time.
Major hit singles like "Dreams" and "Rhiannon" made Nicks a focal point of Fleetwood Mac, and in 1981 she took time off from the group to record her solo debut, Bella Donna, which hit number one on the strength of the Top 20 hits "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" (a duet with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers), "Leather and Lace" (a duet with Don Henley), and "Edge of Seventeen (Just Like the White Winged Dove)." After a return to Fleetwood Mac for the 1982 album Mirage (which featured her hit "Gypsy"), Nicks released her second solo effort, The Wild Heart, highlighted by the Top Five smash "Stand Back." Rock a Little, which featured the single "Talk to Me," followed in 1985.
After a long hiatus (during which time Nicks was treated for a chemical dependency problem), Fleetwood Mac reunited for the album Tango in the Night; The Other Side of the Mirror, Nicks' first solo record in four years, followed in 1989. After a series of lineup changes and dropping sales figures, she left Fleetwood Mac in 1993 and issued Street Angel a year later. In 1997, she rejoined the reunited Fleetwood Mac on tour and on the album The Dance. In 1998 Nicks, along with her Fleetwood Mac bandmates, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the same year that her three-disc Enchanted box set landed in stores.
Nicks returned to the studio in 2001 with friends Macy Gray, Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, and Dixie Chick Natalie Maines for the solo album Trouble in Shangri-La, and again in 2003 for the Fleetwood Mac reunion album Say You Will. Reprise released the CD/DVD Crystal Visions: The Very Best of Stevie Nicks in 2007, but it wasn't until 2011 -- almost a decade to the day after Trouble in Shangri-La's release -- that Nicks returned with a new solo album. Produced by Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard, In Your Dreams found her singing a mix of Bob Dylan-inspired folk songs, Italian love ballads, and rock anthems.