Stevie Nicks is never beating the witch allegations.
Despite decades-enduring rumors, rock’s most mystical singer-songwriter has long disavowed spell-casting and similar activities (her quote “I just wear black because it makes me look thinner, you idiots” comes to mind). But there’s a reason the word “witch” trails behind her as closely as one of her sequined shawls, and it was on full display Monday night at TD Garden during her latest solo tour.
These days, the live performance rubric for legacy rock acts measures just how much an artist can still rattle the rafters. But Fleetwood Mac favorites like “Rhiannon” and “Landslide” do not a rager make, and Nicks’s prowess at age 77 instead manifested in her ability to keep Boston fans still but thoroughly spellbound, hanging on her every twirl.
Even when Nicks added an aggressive edge to her delivery, silvery vocals turning stony on songs like “Stand Back” and “Edge of Seventeen,” the crowd remained eerily rapt in lieu of any standard “rocking out.” Her mic stand, garlanded with beads and ribbons, and a steady rotation of vintage shawls only amplified her reputation.
The Boston date of Nicks’s solo tour was originally scheduled for August, but a shoulder fracture forced her to postpone a slew of performances, a debacle she addressed early in the set.
“It isn’t like it doesn’t hurt, but at least I can do it,” Nicks said with a wink after miming a few physical therapy exercises.
Throughout the evening, the singer’s demeanor was one of gratitude and pure pep, eagerly conjuring career anecdotes like the origin story of her Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers collaboration, “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.” Later, a cover of Petty’s tune “Free Fallin’” slated into the set with ease, a testament to Nicks’s cohesive selection of solo songs for the tour, all culled from her early albums “Bella Donna” and “The Wild Heart.” (The lone outlier was her politically charged tempest “The Lighthouse,” which she released as a standalone single last year).
But Nicks’s finest hat trick was proving her enduring appeal as Stevie Nicks, the all-around musician, versus Stevie Nicks, a singer from Fleetwood Mac. Unlike other solo tours of rock icons — say, John Fogerty’s recent date at MGM Music Hall at Fenway — Nicks’s own songs complemented the Fleetwood Mac material instead of competing with it. The instantly recognizable opening riffs of “Edge of Seventeen” and “Gold Dust Woman” were met with equal enthusiasm from the crowd, while her 1981 song “Outside the Rain” melted into the heartbeat-like bass of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” as if they were companion pieces.
There’s no finale like “Landslide” to knock loose a few tears, and during Nicks’s encore, her vocals twinkled like those fabled snow-covered hills while a slideshow displayed photos of her late Fleetwood Mac bandmate, Christine McVie.
The wistful ballad debuted on Fleetwood Mac’s self-titled album from 1975 ― the same album that helped weave Nicks into the fabric of the band and catapulted them to lasting stardom. Fifty years later, the song and Nicks seem somehow riper and more poignant than ever.
The work of a witch or not, that’s just magic.
STEVIE NICKS
With Abby Andersen. At TD Garden, Monday
Here’s the setlist from Monday, according to setlist.fm. Keep checking back as the list continues to update.
Victoria Wasylak can be reached at victoria.wasylak@globe.com.