Stevie Nicks: Live At Red Rocks (Image)
Set against the raw majesty of Colorado's Red Rocks amphitheatre, this  1987, post-Fleetwood Mac concert by Stevie Nicks is pure rock & roll cabaret.  Backed by the lapidary if impersonal arrangements of her sizable band, including  ubiquitous session man Waddy Wachtel (Jackson Browne, Keith Richards) on guitar,  Rick Marotta on drums, and mood-setter Jai Winding at keyboards, Nicks's dusky,  chanteuse vocals bear down hard on this program's nine selections. Hard, but not  always interestingly. Sorely missing is the rare alchemy of a real band like  Mac, in which Nicks's irresistible status as grandiloquent white witch and heel- stomping rocker enlivens, and is enlivened by, the reciprocal quirks of fellow  members. In this star-focused setting, Nicks doesn't get to dance freely on the  ledges of Lindsey Buckingham's maniacal palaces. Her responsibility is to anchor  a more predictable enterprise, and while that certainly doesn't dull Nicks's  commitment, it obscures her artistry and makes her show look like a self-tribute  at a supper club. Highlights include a driving cover of pal Tom Petty's "I Need  to Know," a bluesy "Talk to Me," and a touching "Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You." A  still photograph of Nicks and Mick Fleetwood (who adds percussion at a couple of  points) that kind of dissolves in and out during "Beauty and the Beast" is  embarrassing, but makes it perfectly clear what that particular tune is about.  Peter Frampton shows up for an encore of "Edge of Seventeen," as do a bunch of  white-winged doves someone releases from the audience, one of which finds refuge  in Nicks's palm and decides to stay awhile. Ahh, rock's very own Snow White.--Tom Keogh