Mirror in the Sky

A stunning musical biography of Stevie Nicks that paints a portrait of an artist, not a caricature of a superstar.

Diva, heroine, icon, and-to the most devoted-a goddess. Stevie Nicks resonates across generations, singing of spellcasters and dreamsmiths, stars of the silver screen, Joan of Arc, her grandmother Alice and Alice in Wonderland. This biography from distinguished music historian Simon Morrison examines Nicks as a singer and songwriter before and beyond her career with Fleetwood Mac, from the Arizona landscape of her childhood to the strobe-lit Night of a Thousand Stevies celebrations.

Mirror in the Sky analyzes Nicks's craft-the grain of her voice, the poetry of her lyrics, the melodic and harmonic syntax of her songs-and identifies the American folk and country influences on her musical imagination that place her within a distinctly American tradition of women songwriters. Drawing from oral histories and surprising archival discoveries, Morrison connects Nicks's story to those of California's above- and underground music industries, innovations in recording technology, and gendered restrictions that rendered her femininity an object of fascination, and even fear. Reflective and expansive, Mirror in the Sky situates Stevie Nicks as one of the finest songwriters of the twentieth century.