It isn’t every day that a band devotes its time to preparing a meticulous cover of an entire album. But then, not all bands are the Lindsey Buckingham Appreciation Society. Throughout May this collective of six musicians–with serious devotion to Buckingham–made their way along parts of the East coast performing Fleetwood Mac’s titular album, Tusk, which was one of Buckingham’s most experimental compositions at the time the album was released in 1979. I caught them at a performance at Union Hall, attended by serious Fleetwood Mac fans (yours truly included). I wanted to know how they got together, why they love Lindsey and whether they have more projects planned for the future. Charlie Hall, co-founder, guitarist, singer and occasional keyboardist for the band answered my questions. Thanks again, Charlie!
The Lindsey Buckingham Appreciation Society at Union Hall
I think it is refreshing that you have all formed this group as a tribute to an artist that you all admire. Do you plan to cover any other Fleetwood Mac albums or any of Lindsey Buckingham’s solo projects? Please tell me that you all have something else up your sleeves….
Well, this whole thing just started as just a one-off attempt at a realization of something we’ve been talking about for ages…but then, the six of us got together, and realized that we really love being together and we seem to take very seriously both playing music and having major laughs. So, now that it has become apparent that there is a bit of an audience for this thing, we are taking stock to see if we can make the numbers work out to bring this to some more audiences – specifically the west coast. As for other future endeavors, who knows? Maybe this’ll turn into an annual affair, where we tackle another Mac record. My vote would be for Mirage, which I feel is a very underappreciated one.
Sounds like some of you met while playing with the same band. How did the rest of you meet?
Well, I suppose we could make a Venn diagram of the whole deal, but in a nutshell, Pat and I met when our bands would play together in Philadelphia in the early ‘00s. We’re both drummers, really, so we never really get a chance to play together. He had worked with Tony Goddess, who recorded some Bigger Lovers stuff. When we approached Tony about the idea he, in typical Lindsey fashion, said ‘Yes, as long as my wife Sam can be involved’. Well, thank god because Sam is our total ace in the hole – singing, playing guitar, keyboards, etc. Anyway, I’ve played in many, many projects with Dave Hartley, including The War on Drugs, The Silver Ages, Gianmarco Cilli, etc…he’s like a brother to me. And lastly, Birdie Busch is a wonderful Philly singer and songwriter and bandleader who I have seen a bunch of times and just kind of approached about the idea because she seemed to have the right spirit. And, lo and behold, the whole puzzle just fit together beautifully.
Did you all collectively realize at one point that you were all bonkers for Buckingham?
HAHA. Bonkers for Buckingham. That’s awesome. If I were more creative, I’d come up with one of those for everyone. I’m Crazy for Christine, for sure. Anyway, it’s funny, as far as Tusk itself goes, the Lindsey tracks were always sort of the roadblocks for me, personally. I’ve always seen Tusk as this treasure trove of gorgeous Christine and Stevie tracks…Over and Over, Brown Eyes, Honey Hi, Think About Me (Christine) and Storms, Sara, Angel (Stevie), which are broken up with these little Lindsey freak outs. But as we really peeled back the layers on this thing, I really came around on the Lindsey tracks too. Birdie (for whom Tusk was fairly unchartered territory at the outset), on the other hand, gravitated right to the Lindsey tunes. I mean, the record itself was really driven by Lindsey and his manic vision. So, while I like to think we’re equally opportunistic when it comes to who we’re bonkers for, I think we do all share size large, er, appreciation, for the genius of Lindsey.
Sometimes covers are way different from the originals, but you all are pretty true to the original album. Is that because it was a tribute show or are you just trying to stay true to the original works?
Funny you should say that. I mean, we definitely wanted to honor this record as a whole, and be true to it in a sense. But I think we also hoped to offset any expectations of roles, etc by having different people sing songs that spoke to them personally, rather than sticking to defined character roles, which involved moving key signatures around, etc. But maybe in the whole scheme of things, those changes were more subtle. What we absolutely did not want to do was to do some ironic or intentionally subversive take on this. I think sincerity, love, and appreciation were at the core of the decisions we made. So, to answer your question more directly, we absolutely do not intend for this to be a tribute show, but rather an honest take on this music that plays to our individual strengths and passions as musicians. And music fans.
So, you really like Lindsey Buckingham. How do you feel about the other members of the band? What can you say about Fleetwood Mac?
Well, I could say a lot about Fleetwood Mac. It’s one of those bands that almost always been there in my orbit. Having been born in 1974, I have very early memories associated with listening to Rumours and staring at the jacket. My brother Allen is nine years older than me, and I spent most of my childhood sneaking his records, trying to take it all in. I remember Rumours just sounding so HUGE and shiny…like “Go Your Own Way”, etc. And then it got all quiet and lovely with “Songbird”. The old peaks and valleys thing. And so then I found Tusk in his collection, and I remember thinking how HEAVY it was, and everything was, like, a sleeve inside a sleeve and they were upside down in the picture and it was so weird sounding. Valleys and peaks. And “Sara”. I would listen to “Sara” endlessly as a kid. (Full disclosure: I still do.) It’s just this mysteriously beautiful wash of cymbals, brushes, tack piano, etc. And I’ve always thought that if aliens came down to earth, and we needed to explain anything about anything, we could just play them “Sara”, and be like, ‘check this out’.
So as far as the rest of the band goes…I feel like it’s an endless cycle of “it’s all about Mick’s drumming”… “No, wait, it’s all about John’s pocket on the bass”…”Wait, of course it’s all about Christine’s soulful Rhodes and singing”…”Or maybe it’s all about Stevie’s two chord, seven minute stream of conscious freak outs about chasing ghosts through the fog”. The reality is, it’s all those things together. McVie and Fleetwood (the one constant through every incarnation of the ‘Mac) really are the Lennon/McCartney of rhythm sections. And having three distinctly different voices and songwriting styles on top of that just makes for such a deep combination. I think a lot of people have an opinion one way or the other about Fleetwood Mac, often informed by the hits or childhood memories or whatever. The hits are great. But there is much more. It’s been really fun doing this ‘Tusk’ thing and having friends really discovering this record for the first time. I can’t tell you how many people have said to me ‘Man, I had no idea _______ (insert revelation here)…this album is so great.’
the bus is leaving 