[The Nicks Fix]

Stormy Weather '98
L.A. Weekly
April 10, 1998

"Stormy Weather features Sandra Bernhard, Paula Cole, Joni Mitchell, Sheryl Crow, Stevie Nicks, Gwen Stefani, Trisha Yearwood, with the El Nino orchestra. The hook here is that each performer's doing standards with the El Nino orchestra, it could in therory, possibly be something extremely special. Benefit for the Walden Woods project and the Thoreau Institue at Walden Pond."


Billboard
March 12, 1998
Edited by Julie Taraska

Stevie, Shawn Join Walden Woods Benefit
Stevie Nicks, Shawn Colvin, Natalie Cole, Sheryl Crow, Paula Cole, Gwen Stefani, Toni Braxton, and Trisha Yearwood are among the artists confirmed for a Walden Woods Project benefit to be held April 16 at Los Angeles' Wiltern Theater. The event, named Stormy Weather '98, will feature a 66-piece symphony, named, fittingly enough, the El Niņo Orchestra.


USA Today
March 11, 1998

More sign on for all-female benefit

Natalie Cole, Shawn Colvin and Toni Braxton are the latest to sign on for an all-female benefit for the Walden Woods Project and its new Thoreau Institute at Walden Pond in Massachusetts. The project, founded by singer Don Henley, works on environmental protection efforts. Also on the bill for the April 16 show at L.A.'s Wiltern Theater: Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks, Sheryl Crow, Paula Cole, Trisha Yearwood, Gwen Stefani and Sandra Bernhard.


MTV News
March 6, 1998

Stefani, Crow, Cole, Nicks To Come Out For Walden Woods

Tickets go on sale this Sunday in Los Angeles for an April benefit featuring Paula Cole, Sheryl Crow, No Doubt's Gwen Stefani, Stevie Nicks and country singer Trisha Yearwood.

The event, billed as Stormy Weather '98, is slated for April 16 at L.A.'s Willtern Theater and is being staged as a benefit for Don Henley's Walden Woods Foundation. The organization has been working since 1990 to preserve the land around Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts where Henry David Thoreau lived and wrote.


LA Times
March 4, 1998

Singing for Walden Woods: Singers Stevie Nicks, Sheryl Crow, Paula Cole, Trisha Yearwood and Gwen Stefani of No Doubt are among those set for "Stormy Weather '98," an April 16 concert at the Wiltern Theatre to benefit the Walden Woods Project and the new Thoreau Institute at Walden Pond in Massachusetts. Don Henley of the Eagles, who put together a pair of 1992 benefits at Universal Amphitheatre that raised about $400,000 for a campaign to preserve the historic area, is also behind the Wiltern show but is not scheduled to perform. Tickets go on sale Sunday at 10 a.m.


LA Times
March 4, 1998

A concert for the Walden Woods Project blends today's pop divas with yesterday's pop standards.

By MARC WEINGARTEN, Times Staff Writer

More often than not, benefit concerts are hastily thrown-together affairs that lack cohesion or a consistent musical through-line.
     That won't be the case at tonight's Stormy Weather '98, a benefit concert for Don Henley's Walden Woods Project at the Wiltern Theatre--at least if musical director Larry Klein has his way.
     He and Henley have amassed an A-list lineup of female pop artists that includes Joni Mitchell, Sheryl Crow, Bjork, Shawn Colvin and Paula Cole to perform jazz and pop standards of the '30s, '40s and '50s, backed by a 66-piece orchestra.
     "I do Sting's rain forest benefit every year in New York, and those are always very elegant affairs," says Henley. "People always think of that as a New York type of thing, so I thought, 'Why can't we do something classy like that in L.A. as well?' "
     It's an ambitious notion, to be sure, but from the moment Henley ran the idea past Klein two months ago, the L.A-based producer and bassist--who's worked on albums by his ex-wife Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt, Holly Cole, Carmen McCrae and Peter Gabriel among many others--knew it would be something memorable.
     "I got really excited about it, particularly once we started creating a list of artists, and virtually everybody on our wish list agreed to perform," says Klein. "Which is nothing short of miraculous, given everyone's complicated schedules."
     From the outset, Klein was prepared for the logistical snags he would encounter as the show date approached. For starters, most of the artists will be performing these songs in public for the first time, without the benefit of extensive rehearsals. That meant virtually all the pre-production work--choosing material, finding appropriate keys, structuring the arrangements--had to be handled via telephone.
     Song selection was arrived at by mutual consensus. In some cases, the artists had very specific ideas about what they wanted to perform, while in others Klein and Henley played musical matchmakers.
     "Don and I sat down with a bunch of old records and came up with a stockpile of songs," says Klein. "It eventually ended up being a 50-50 split between stuff we picked and songs the artist chose."
     As for what songs made the final cut, tonight's audience should expect the unexpected.
     "Bjork's choice of songs was brilliant," says Klein, citing one example. "I don't want to give both of them away, but she picked this obscure Billie Holiday song called 'Gloomy Monday' for one of her numbers, which is this really dark, beautifully crafted song. It just isn't something I would've picked her doing in a million years."
     Gwen Stefani, the lead singer for multi-platinum rock-ska band No Doubt, also threw Klein for a bit of a loop. Not only did she choose the Andrews Sisters' "I Can Dream, Can't I?" as one of her two allotted songs, but Klein also discovered she had the chops to do the technically tricky song justice.
     "She's got an incredible ear," says Klein. "When we were trying to determine a key for the song, Gwen started singing, and it was exactly the same key as the Andrews Sisters' version. I was really impressed with her, and I think people will be surprised by her performance."
     For artists like Bjork, Stefani and Crow, tonight's benefit--whose proceeds will go to the recently completed Thoreau Institute, which contains the world's largest archive devoted to the work of author Henry David Thoreau and is located at Walden Woods in Lincoln, Mass.--provides an ideal opportunity to pay homage to songs with which they have an abiding affinity.
     "I cut my musical teeth listening and singing old standards, but I've never sung these songs in concert before," says Crow. "I really believe in the cause, but I also wanted to pay tribute to what I think is a dying genre. It's gonna be a lot of fun doing it."

     BE THERE

     Stormy Weather '98 with Sandra Bernhard, Bjork, Toni Braxton, Natalie Cole, Paula Cole, Shawn Colvin, Sheryl Crow, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks, Gwen Stefani and Trisha Yearwood, tonight at the Wiltern Theatre, 3790 Wilshire Blvd., 7 p.m. $75 and $152.50. (213) 380-5005.


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