• With a stage set like a chapel. the singer takes on fans on a mystical tour through her career.

By ELISA CROUCH
Journal Bulletin Staff Writer

Mansfield - With her shawl covered arms wide open, Stevie Nicks slowly spun, smiled and said, "Welcome."

   For the rest of Friday night Nicks was philosophical priestess who transformed Great Woods into a stained-glass temple and gave 13,800 fans a mystical tour of her life.

   "If you don't recognize a song, you blinked," she told them. And then after two hours and at least 12 different shawls, she hugged the microphone, smiled and buried her head in her arms before the lights dimmed and she joined her band to walk off stage.

   The concert was the ninth stop of her Enchanted tour, which Nicks kicked off in Hartford, Conn., on May 27. Enchanted, Nicks first solo release in four years, encapsulates her solo career with 46 tracks of choice album cuts, solo hits and unreleased tracks in a three-CD box set.

   There were songs familiar to even non-Nicks fans, like "Edge of Seventeen," "I Can't Wait" and "Talk to Me." But no Fleetwood Mac songs, the group whom Nicks's lyrics helped propel to fame in the late 1970's were sung. Nicks did mention the band, however.

   "They'd never let me do this," she said.

   The stage was a mythical chapel with a giant stained-glass backdrop and tattered curtains held back with strings of flowers. Nicks looked great, and her show defied the fact that she's 50. She still had that strong, distinctive voice and peace-and-love philosophical style that she's famous for.

   Although her lengthy monologues were awkward at times, they revealed her insecurities and the wisdom she had even as a 17-year-old-lyrics writer.

   Band member Lenny Castro did a solo percussion number toward the end of the concert, and drummer Land Richards joined in halfway through it. Nicks's other band members were Carlos Rios, musical director and guitar, Don Doyette, bass, Frank Simes, guitar, Kevin Seller and Brett Tuggle, keyboards, and Sharon Celani and Mindy Stein, backup vocals.

   Fans in modern Victorian garb littered the audience, in long lacy shawls and floral head wreaths, tall stiletto boots and renaissance festival dresses.

   "She totally communicates with her audience," said Donna Nichols of upstate New York, a 20-year fan who's seen Nicks in concert 15 times.

   "Rock stars have rally gotten normal these days, and she's mystical," Jenne Morrissey, of Mendon, Mass., said, clad in gypsy garb and Gothic jewelry.

   Another '70s star opened for Nicks. Although his rhythm and blues, and some disco songs were familiar, Boz Scagg's name is one very few GenXers have heard before.