By David Lindquist, Star/News Staff Writer

The songwriting of Stevie Nicks undoubtedly helped shape the lexicon for thousands of junior high poetry projects during the early 1980s. Her dreamy lyrics were populated by angels, candles, capes, doves, lace, linen and leather.

On Saturday, Nicks succeeded in re-conjuring the magic for a crowd of 7,227 at Deer Creek Music Center.

While the lyrics did flirt with pretension on Nicks' 10 Top 40 hits as a solo artist, the high priestess of soft rock always had a genuine passion that was in evidence Saturday. Nicks, in strong voice and looking fit at 50, reveled in the chance to reintroduce her song catalog, which has been collected on the new box set Enchanted.

During a three-song acoustic set early in the show, Nicks talked to the audience about her love-hate relationship with the California rock scene of the '70s. Her throaty voice connected on "After the Glitter Fades," "Garbo" and "Rose Garden."

It was during the '70s, of course, that Nicks encountered massive commercial success with Fleetwood Mac. She picked "Dreams," "Gold Dust Woman," "Landslide" and a reworked "Rhiannon" from those days for Saturday's performance.

While some of Nicks' solo recordings were hampered by too-slick production, her current touring band is an organic success. The seven-piece outfit (plus two backup vocalists) provided a bass-heavy, polyrhythmic foundation to "Stand Back" and "Edge of Seventeen."

Nicks and her band sounded most current on "Enchanted," a catchy album cut rescued from 1983's The Wild Heart and given new life through the box set.

As one might expect, Nicks' flowing wardrobe evolved as the evening progressed and the crowd yipped in delight with each mystical arm gesture and twirl she made on stage. The stage itself had a high-concept mansion feel, aided by a smart stained-glass window backdrop.

California soul man Boz Scaggs capped his 50-minute opening set with renditions of the mid-'70s dance hits "Lido Shuffle" and "Lowdown." Bass player Richard Patterson and backup vocalist Lisa Frazier were the best parts of Scaggs' performance, which was mostly a showcase for his benign brand of blues guitar -- aside from an admirable second solo played during "I've Got Your Love."