Stevie Nicks (born May 26, 1948) is a multi-award winning American singer-songwriter. She is best known for both her work with rock ’n’ roll band Fleetwood Mac, and her extensive, multi-platinum solo career. Her influence in fashion, music and musical performance is acknowledged widely; and as such, she has been named one of music’s top 55 “Greatest Songwriters of All Time”, and as one of the world’s top “100 Greatest Singers of All Time”. She has garnered eight Grammy Award nominations and two American Music Award nominations as a solo artist. She has won numerous awards with Fleetwood Mac, including a Grammy Award and five Grammy Award nominations. Nicks is known for her distinctive voice, mystical visual style, and symbolic lyrics. During her solo career, she has had a close working relationship with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers; the song “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around”, performed by Nicks and Petty, was one of the biggest hits for either artist. (More from Wikipedia)
The new direction for Fleetwood Mac was not limited to personnel changes or new musical experimentation; this has been common in bands long before rock and roll came along. Fleetwood Mac relocated to Los Angeles in the mid-1970’s; also, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks were Americans. Thus, it is difficult to know even how to define the band. Wikipedia calls them “a British-American rock band formed in 1967 in London”, but more than a few comments in the Wikipedia “Talk” section grumble about even calling their latter-day music “rock”. In Allmusic, their article starts off: “While most bands undergo a number of changes over the course of their careers, few groups experienced such radical stylistic changes as Fleetwood Mac. Initially conceived as a hard-edged British blues combo in the late ’60s, the band gradually evolved into a polished pop/rock act over the course of a decade. Throughout all of their incarnations, the only consistent members of Fleetwood Mac were drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie – the rhythm section that provided the band with its name.”
