This year's lineup also features a pedal steel player, who was put to brilliant use on a gorgeous, understated “Hymn to Her,” after which Hynde told the audience, “That one was for Stevie.” It was great to see those two iconic artists share a stage, especially considering a quote I read from Nicks before the show: “When my manager said, ‘What about The Pretenders?’ I’m like, ‘Would they even go with me?’ And he said, ‘I think they would!'” The great Pretenders (so special) She also dusted off her other big ‘80s duet, the Tom Petty collaboration “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” with Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders standing in for Petty. And one day, he said, ‘It’s good.’ And I went ‘OK, so we’re done?’ And he said, ‘We’re done.’”
And this went on for, like, a couple months. “I didn’t write it with Don Henley,” Nicks recalled, “but I was going out with Don Henley so I would play it for him and he would say, ‘That sucks.’ And I would say, ‘OK (because you’re, like, an Eagle)’ and then I’d go back and I’d work on it. In addition to those relative obscurities, they dusted off a handful of her biggest hits, including “Edge of Seventeen,” “Stand Back” and a beautiful, bittersweet “Leather and Lace,” her Don Henley duet, which featured gorgeous harmonies from Nicks’ female backup singers and brought the encore to a finish after one last story.
#Stevie nicks and the pretenders setlist mac
Nicks’ voice was in beautiful shape throughout, and the musicians she’s assembled for this tour (including Tempe’s Al Ortiz on bass and Nicks’ longtime musical director Waddy Wachtel on guitar) did a brilliant job of fleshing out the songs, from the bass-driven groove of the opening numbers, “Gold and Braid” and “If Anyone Falls,” to the three Fleetwood Mac songs they played, “Gold Dust Woman,” “Rhiannon” and “Dreams.”Īnd as those Fleetwood selections would suggest, it wasn’t all about the road less traveled.
Or as people have been known to shout, “More rock, less talk.” 'You have been like great friends'Īnd those demos sounded great. I’m just gonna talk.” And that was only after realizing how much she had been talking and telling the crowd, "You know, it’s like I’m not really supposed to talk this much.” She talked a lot, at one point joking, “Someday, I may do a show where I don’t even sing. I know I remember sitting in the basement and working this song out.” It was so long ago, I don’t actually remember if it ever was the single or made it out. “Forty-three years,” she said, before recalling, “This was gonna be the single off the Buckingham Nicks record. Nicks marveled at how long it’s been since that first album she recorded with then-boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham. “Bella Donna” was back in the set list for the first time since the very early ‘80s, and four songs made their live debut – “Belle Fleur,” “Wild Heart,” “If You Were My Love” and the Buckingham Nicks song, “Crying in the Night.” What makes this such “a very different show” is that she’s playing songs she’s never played before and others that she hasn’t touched in ages, setting the tone for the 20-song performance with the old-school Memphis soul vibe of a track she hadn’t played in 16 years, “Gold and Braid.” As she said at the end of the night, “You’ve let me know that this is gonna work and that I’m gonna be OK.