As the story goes, while Fleetwood Mac was in the midst of an Australian tour, Stevie screened the film ‘New Moon,’ in her hotel. She was so moved by the story of the film, she sat down at the piano and reworked her 1970’s era demo ‘Lady from the Mountain,’ into a new song. She was extremely proud of the finished product and went to her Reprise (her record company) to tell them she was ready to record a new album. Mind you, this was just a couple of years after ‘Trouble in Shangri-La,’ which had been a critical and commercial success. However, her label discouraged her from recording, and instead suggested she stick to touring.
Stevie spent the next few years touring and filming a concert video for PBS (Soundstage). She also guested on a pilot for HBO. Dave Stewart was pitching a talk show, and wanted Stevie as his first guest. She played a 15 minute version of ‘Rhiannon,’ for the show. Unfortunately the show was not picked up, but it did get Stevie and Dave to talking about a collaboration.
While all this is going on, Stevie bought a new house in Malibu. In true Stevie fashion, after living in it for a week, Stevie decided it was too much House for her, and she re-listed it.
Stevie and Dave reconnected at the Grammy Awards in 2010, and at this point, she asked him to produce her next record. She gave him a book of her poetry to read and he gave her an instrumental track he had written with only four lines of lyric written. They decided to record the album in Stevie’s as-yet unsold house.
The result was ‘In Your Dreams,’ released on May 3, 2011, thirty years after ‘Bella Donna.’ The album debuted at number six on the Billboard 200, spending a total of sixteen weeks on the chart. Along with the new tracks (several co-written with Dave Stewart), Steve also included songs from her ‘Gothic Trunk of Lost Songs.’ ‘Secret Love,’ was a demo from the 1970’s that was discovered on YouTube. ‘Annabel Lee,’ was supposedly written when Stevie was in high school, but was not demo’d until the 1990’s for possible inclusion on ‘Trouble in Shangri-La.’
The album boasted FOUR music videos: ‘Secret Love.’ ‘For What It’s Worth,’ ‘Cheaper Than Free,’ and ‘Moonlight (A Vampire’s Dream).’
Dig Deeper
Randy: in 2013 I was on the board for an arts organization, and was working in a library. I had arranged to have a traveling bookmobile visit over Spring Break. After confirming the dates and making all the arrangements, I found out that Stevie and Dave would be at SXSW in Austin that same week, screening the documentary and doing a Q&A. I was so upset that I had scheduled myself out of attending. As I was driving to work one day, I passed by an old movie theater that was used to book tribute acts and screen the occasional film. In the span of 48 hours, I contacted the film distributor, the movie theater and secured funding through the arts council to screen the doc. It was a huge success and set me up for the next chapter in my professional life.
The album also had a bonus track available from iTunes and Barnes & Noble. ‘My Heart,’ was originally recorded for ‘Trouble in Shangri-La,’ but didn’t make the cut.
Further Reading
As we mentioned in the episode, this was Stevie’s literary album. Wide Sargasso Sea, Annabel Lee, Anne Rice and Twilight are well represented. For Randy, though this album will be forever tied to ‘The Night Circus,’ by Erin Morgenstern. The album and the novel were both released in 2011. ‘The Night Circus,’ has enough Stevie imagery to satisfy even the most die hard fan.
The Complete Studio Albums and Rarities is available to stream on iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon Music. The cd edition is available from Rhino Records.
The Generic, Non Specific Stevie Nicks Podcast 