Keith Caulfield
It’s proving to be a very busy year for the legendary Stevie Nicks. Not only is she about to head out on tour with a reunited Fleetwood Mac, but she’s also in the midst of finishing up her own new solo album.
Tentatively titled “24 Karat Gold: Songs From the Vault,” Nicks’ forthcoming collection includes lost and stray tracks that she’s written and recorded through the years, but never made it onto an album. The selections for “24 Karat Gold” were all newly recorded, and co-produced by Nicks, Dave Stewart and Waddy Wachtel.
Nicks’ publicist, Liz Rosenberg, says that Nicks hopes to release the album in October on Reprise/Warner Bros. Records. She recently recorded the “24 Karat” tunes in Nashville, and will continue working on the album in Los Angeles.
(The album title presumably refers to Nicks’ song “24 Karat Gold,” which is widely available on YouTube as a bootleg.)
Nicks says that she just recorded “18 tracks in three weeks” for the album — saying that it’s the “fastest I have ever recorded.”
She made those comments last night during her acceptance speech at the BMI Pop Awards in Los Angeles, where she was honored with the BMI Icon award for her songwriting achievements. Nicks has written or co-written many of her solo hit singles, including “Edge of Seventeen (Just Like the White Winged Dove)” and “Stand Back.” As part of the band Fleetwood Mac, Nicks wrote or co-wrote such favorites as “Landslide,” “Rhiannon” and the No. 1 the Billboard Hot 100 hit “Dreams.”
“We went onto YouTube and we found all the songs that, somehow, were taken from my house or picked up or loaned out or whatever … and we went to Nashville (and recorded them),” Nicks told the Associated Press. “So they’re like all starting from like 1969 maybe? I call them my 24 karat gold songs.”
There’s no word on if “24 Karat Gold” will feature any special guests, however, with Nicks having been in a collaborative mood lately, one never knows who might turn up on the set. Recently, Nicks performed with Lady Antebellum on the Academy of Country Music Awards (April 6) and on “CMT Crossroads” (Sept. 13, 2013), as well as with Dave Grohl on the “Sound City” soundtrack (2013).
“24 Karat Gold” follows Nicks’ last studio effort, 2011’s “In Your Dreams,” which was also co-produced by Stewart. It debuted and peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 chart and has sold 199,000 in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Fleetwood Mac, meanwhile, is also working on new music and will kick off a concert tour starting Sept. 30 in Minneapolis. It will be the band’s first trek with singer/songwriter Christine McVie since The Dance Tour in 1997.