Truly Left Enchanted

7/3/98

Stevie Nicks performed in Birmingham, AL with a rich enthusiasm. With Stevie's personal history with Birmingham, it felt almost like a homecoming of sorts. It was almost as if she was playing to the hometown crowd.

Stevie's openness and frankness was welcome, and she seemed happy to be on stage performing despite the stifling heat. "A hot southern night" she called it. And she was right. It was hot and humid.

Stevie's band gave an almost too perfect performance, coming across as very rehearsed and not allowing for very much play or ad-lib. They rendered near- perfect readings of the Mac classics "Dreams", "Gold Dust Woman", and "Landslide". The only exception being a change in the feel of "Rhiannon", which had a nice under lying groove courtesy of the tight rhythm section. One surprise song of the night was "Twisted". This song was recorded by Stevie and Lindsey Buckingham for inclusion on the "Twister" Soundtrack. It's one of my favorite Pseudo-Mac tracks. Stevie's rendition was radically different from the album version, and it sorely lacked Lindsey's vocal presence. As a matter of fact, Lindsey was missed practically all night. He was conspicuously absent from the band's rendition of "Landslide" when the keyboardist had to cover the solo part behind the guitarist (if you recall Lindsey plays both parts at once). And you couldn't help but miss Lindsey and Christine McVie's voices on "Dreams".

Anyway, it was a great show topped by a great encore (Tom Petty's "I Need to Know" and "Has Anyone Ever Written Anything For You?"). It was a night I'll remember for a while and I truly left "Enchanted".

Birmingham LOVES Stevie. And she loves us back.

6/30/98

I've seen Stevie on several tours and never has she been more vibrant, more open, more personable. The set list here in Birmingham was a little different: "Whole Lotta Trouble" was earlier in the show and there was no "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around," for some reason.

But Stevie did take a few minutes before her Hollywood acoustic trilogy to tell a story about herself and a certain guitar player coming to Alabama in 1973.

"We were starving in L.A.," she said, "and then we come here to play for 5,000 people.".

The freak success of the Buckingham Nicks album in Alabama gave our favorite duo a choice, she said. "I told Lindsey, 'We can move to Birmingham, and branch out from the South, or we can join Fleetwood Mac.'".

The crowd roared its approval for the former, but Stevie explained why she and Lindsey went for the latter. "Fleetwood Mac gave us money," she said.

The biggest spontaneous cheers of the night came every time she mentioned the Buckingham Nicks album, including a brief explanation of the song "Garbo," which she revealed was written on the day she and Lindsey shot the infamous nude cover. "I wasn't sure I wanted to do that," she said, "but I thought about how a lot of the girls probably did things they didn't want to do.".

Many in the crowd hoped we'd hear a little something from the album, but Stevie stuck to her solo and Mac set.

The biggest ovation came for "Landslide," which Stevie dedicated to the graduating class at Huntsville High School and to a student that wasn't allowed to perform the song for the class since church leaders had labeled Stevie a "witch.".

"Can we take a minute to talk about the uproar over my song?" she said. "If ever I wrote an angelic song, it's 'Landslide.' Emilie, I would have come to sing it for you myself if I hadn't had a show.".

The venue at Oak Mountain State Park was packed, from front row to lawn. I'd estimate 12,000 or so fans turned out on what Stevie called a "hot, hot Southern night in your town. Thank you for giving this to me.".

Thank you, as well, Stevie!.