Stevie Nicks
with Bob Schneider

By Rachel Heisler

Tuesday, August 7; Journal Pavilion (all ages, 7:30 p.m.): Seventies super-group Fleetwood Mac may not be as prominent today as they were a decade ago, but the group's black-lace-dress-wearing icon, Miss Stevie Nicks, doesn't need Fleetwood, Mac--or anyone else for that matter--to make a great album, get her face on MTV or headline a national tour. Not that solo work is a new concept for the diva: 1981's Bella Donna was followed by six more solo albums, not including an all Stevie boxed set and compilation CD.

Nicks' latest solo work (CD number six) Trouble in Shangri-La is brimming with star power and well written, hook-filled tunes (if you're a Nicks fan and haven't heard the CD yet, I can't imagine what on earth you're waiting for). With the help of and input from close friends Sheryl Crow, Macy Gray, Sarah McLachlan and others, as well as years of experience and time to mature, Nicks has again captured the breathy, mystical qualities that helped make her famous. Her sound has stayed consistent over the years and has not lost any of its strange images or weird ideologies. If Nicks has taught anyone anything, it's that when something works it makes sense to stick with it, no matter what the critics say.