By Mary Lyn Maiscott
Stevie calls Sheryl her little sister, her saving grace, her angel. Sheryl calls Stevie her hero, her inspiration, her friend. Perhaps appropriately, Stevie Nicks and Sheryl Crow met at the premiere for a 1995 movie called “Boys on the Side.” For that soundtrack, Sheryl had co-written “Somebody Stand by Me,” sung by Stevie. (Sheryl did the Eric Clapton/Bobby Whitlock song “Keep On Growing.”) “I need someone to stand by me/ Stand by me, just one time,” Stevie sang emphatically in her distinctive, seen-a-lot-of-life voice.
Maybe the someone she needed, standing by her professionally, was another woman—leaving the boys on the side for a while. “There is such a fabulous dynamic that happens in the studio when there are two women, two kindred spirits [with] similar mind sets,” Sheryl told a VH1 interviewer, as Stevie smiled and nodded beside her, about producing two Nicks-written tunes. Those were “Crystal” and “If You Ever Did Believe” for another soundtrack, this one for “Practical Magic,” a movie about two sisters who are witches.
Leather and Lace
Stevie, whose publishing company is called Welsh Witch Music, was a natural for that film. With her flowing skirts, transparent veils, scented candles, and scarf-covered lamps, she has long been identified with mysticism and other-worldliness. (“Oh, the witch, I love her, the magic witch” Grace Slick said when asked about Nicks as #14 on the VH1 roster of 100 greatest female rockers.) She also has a solid streak of practicality, though, one that caused her to seek out Sheryl to produce several tracks of her new album, “Trouble in Shangri-La,” her first solo work since “Street Angel” seven years ago.
The lean, Missouri-born Sheryl—though striking, with her Cindy Crawford-like looks—has a more earthbound style than Stevie, tending as it does toward jeans, suede jackets, and cowboy boots. I remember being appalled years ago hearing Stevie, on the radio, speaking of the dress rules she’d instituted for her back-up singers when they were recording. She felt that if the women wore jeans and other casual wear, the men would treat them “like an old shoe.” Though doubtless her concern about this has been mitigated somewhat—the rock world is not quite as male-dominated, and certainly not as chauvinistic, as it used to be—what a relief it must be for her to work, at least part of the time, with women! Certainly she did not have to worry about a lack of respect with Sheryl. “From the first moment in the studio, it was clearly a safe environment,” Stevie has said of their collaboration, “and that opened the lines of communication and allowed us to try new ideas out.”
Candlebright in the Window
One of those new ideas was the high, ethereal voice that Stevie surprisingly leaps to several times in the new album’s “Sorcerer,” a Nicks song that dates back to 1972. Listening to the song, I found myself waiting for that lovely lurch upwards, such a contrast to her normal throaty sound. A little catch in Sheryl’s voice (I’m pretty sure it’s Sheryl, as opposed to Stevie’s usual back-up singers, Sharon Celani and sister-in-law Lori Nicks), on the line “in the middle of a snow dream,” subtly complements Stevie’s alluring falsetto.
Stevie gets a catch in her own voice in the country-tinged, Crow-produced song “Too Far From Texas,” a lively duet with Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks. Macy Gray also pops up on the record as a guest vocalist, and so does Sarah McLachlan. Actresses Laura Dern and Rosanna Arquette also had a hand in the proceedings, insisting to producer John Shanks that he re-instate all of their friend Stevie’s lyrics for the rocking “Fall from Grace” (on which Sheryl again provides background vocals). In the May issue of Interview magazine, Stevie told Sheryl, her interviewer, “Everybody’s asking me: did you purposely gather together this group of girls? But we didn’t plan any of those things.” Sheryl responded, “Usually people wander into your life, and that’s what creates those special moments.” (I should perhaps mention that old flame Lindsey Buckingham wandered in to play guitar on "I Miss You.")
Connections and Conjurers
Stevie and Sheryl are beginning to collect many special moments in their dovetailing professional lives. When Sheryl played Central Park in 1999, one of her guests—along with such luminaries as Eric Clapton, Chrissie Hynde, and Keith Richards—was Stevie, who performed “Gold Dust Woman” as Sheryl accompanied her on guitar and vocals. Stevie also turned up at Sheryl’s unpublicized, intimate gig at New York’s club Shine last spring, with the two women doing “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” and “It’s Only Love.” (The latter is a song from “Trouble in Shangri-La” that Sheryl not only produced but also wrote, specifically for her friend.) Sheryl is expected to return the favor for Stevie’s upcoming tour, sharing the spotlight during the first few shows.
Sheryl has had the opportunity at least twice to honor Stevie at public functions. In presenting Stevie with the 2001 Blockbuster Award for songwriting, she said of both her well-known hits and her latest work, “These songs reflect her openness as a human being as well as her power as a storyteller.” Helping induct Stevie, as part of Fleetwood Mac, into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, Sheryl called her “the woman all young girls wanted to be and all men wanted to be with.” She’s made it clear that Stevie played a large part in her own desire to play music.
For her part, Stevie cannot stop praising Sheryl’s contribution to her new record, which debuted at number five on the Billboard albums chart and generally received enthusiastic reviews. “She really wanted to help me make this record great,” Stevie told Anthony DeCurtis of GetMusic.com. She went on to say that Sheryl wanted to make sure the record would be commercial, telling Stevie, “We have to get you on the radio.” Another practical artist.
“Our connection is deep…deeper than I can even put into mere words,” Stevie says of the relationship. Few things are more connecting than creating together and having something wonderful to show for it. Practical magic, indeed.
