By Dean Johnson

"If I ever did this in Fleetwood Mac," Stevie Nicks confessed midway through last night's Great Woods show for the 13,800 faithful who showed up despite generally crummy weather conditions, "Lindsey would come over and say, "'What are you doing?""

She was referring to the between song patter that peppered her set that lasted nearly two hours and included 18 songs.

Nicks is on tour to celebrate the recent release of her three-CD retrospective "Enchanted". She is using the opportunity to talk with her audience in a kind of "Storytellers" session and dip well into her long recording career.

Backed by an able nine member band, Nicks was in good vocal form as she took on her best known Fleetwood Mac and solo tunes as well as some of her lesser knwon work and a cover of TOm Petty's "I Need to Know".

Songs like "Dreams" and "Gold Dust Woman" were done early on, and though they were solid enough, it was if she wanted them out of the way to dig into less obvious numbers.

The set's rear scrim resembled a huge Tiffany half-dome and added a gothic flavor to the design. Nicks changed outfits several times, did her mandatory "Stevie swirl" piroutettes, and seemed genuinely delighted to be able to stretch out musically, talk about her songs, and have the whole package received ecstatically by her listeners.

Not that everything she said was profound. Before "Rose Garden" Nicks remarked, "Listen to this and understand...wow..I don't know."

Still, this was an above average night, and part of the fun was hearing unexpected tunes such as "Sleeping Angel" or "Whole Lotta Trouble" really take off.

"This is such a pleasure," she said. "You have no idea." But by the end of the night, we did.