Christian Hehr, on lead guitar, performs with Songbirds in Jackson Square, Downtown Batavia, on Friday night. Photo by Howard Owens.
A larger-than-typical crowd jammed into Jackson Square on Friday night to catch Fleetwood Mac tribute band Songbirds perform the legendary band's best-known songs.
The five-piece band formed in 2020 comprises musicians from Genesee County and the immediate area and has been growing in popularity throughout Western New York.
The Songbirds in their practice studio in Corfu: Christian Hehr, Julia Riley, Jeffrey Fischer, Dave Cocuzzi, and Maryssa Peirick. The Songbirds bring their live versions of Fleetwood Mac to Jackson Square on Friday. Photo by Howard Owens.
Why would a few friends in and around their 20s with roots in and around Batavia come together to play the music of Fleetwood Mac, a band whose biggest-selling album, “Rumours,” came out when their parents were barely out of their teens themselves?
It's timeless music, they say. It's authentic. It's fun and challenging to play. And everybody knows and loves the songs, even their coworkers and friends.
The Songbirds is comprised of
Dave Cocuzzi - Drums
Jeffrey Fischer - Bass/Keys/Vocals
Christian Hehr - Guitar/Vocals
Maryssa Peirick - Keys/Vocals
Julia Riley - Vocals/Aux Percussion/Ukulele
The one person who connected all musicians together was Jeffrey Fischer, who met Peirick (the Christine McVie of the band) during high school in a summer musical theater camp and met Riley (Stevie Nicks) at an all-state chorus event while in high school, and Fischer played in various bands with Cocuzzi and Hehr.
All along, they all had a common love for Fleetwood Mac, but things didn't get rolling until Hehr posted on Facebook that he dreamed of playing in a Lindsay Buckingham/Fleetwood Mac tribute band.
Hehr, Fischer, and Cocuzzi joked around about it. The talk got serious when they learned Peirick and Riley were moving back to the Batavia area.
"I kind of got roped into this," Peirick said. "Batavia is home to me, and I moved back in 2020 and reconnected with Jeff. At the same time, Julia moved back from Portland, Oregon. They sort of pitched the idea to me. Jeff and Dave were like, 'Hey, do you want to be in a Fleetwood Mac tribute band? I said, 'I'll try anything once, right?' I've loved Fleetwood Mac for a long time, but I didn't think it would take off like this. I'm very glad that it did, but I definitely kind of got pressured into it, if you will."
The band played its first gig in Attica in December 2021. They're now playing six to eight gigs a month. A lot of them are private parties, which Riley said also gives the band a chance to stretch out and explore other bands from the same period, such as the Eagles.
"The parties are fun for us because we get to expand beyond Fleetwood and into other high-energy rock. We're Mac-heads through and through, but with the talent and interests across our group, it's always fun to explore other styles," Riley said.
On Friday, they will play what is arguably their biggest gig in Batavia yet -- a concert in Jackson Square. It's not their local debut -- they played a block party on South Swan last summer -- but Jackson Square shows always draw a lot of local music fans.
Buckingham to Nicks and McVey Hehr doesn't shy away from being called a Fleetwood Mac nerd. He's the guy who tracks down every possible live recording, watches all of the documentaries, and reads the books and articles. He's just the guy a tribute band needs to bring some historical context to the act and also the musical knowledge to help the band get inside the heads of the artists they're emulating.
"I like studying the parts and finding the patterns in the songwriting -- so, like how Stevie writes versus how Lindsay writes, and identifying those elements in it," Hehr said. "So when we bring it into practice, if we're having trouble figuring out a certain part, I can contribute and say, 'well, knowing Stevie, her chord progressions are very simple and very back and forth, so chances are, it's this chord.'"
Hehr's love of Fleetwood Mac started with guitar. He started playing when he was 13, but it wasn't long before he abandoned picks. He preferred early on playing with his fingers, and this led to an appreciation of fingerstyle guitar, an area where Lindsey Buckingham is a master.
"I just had an affinity for Fleetwood Mac through Lindsey Buckingham's playing," Hehr said. "There was one song I always vowed to myself that if I could ever play it, I would consider that I've made it as a guitar player, and that was 'Never Going Back Again.'"
"He uses Travis picking often," Hehr explained. "'Never Going Back Again' is a good example of him using compound rhythms. He's playing quarter notes with his thumb, but he's doing triplets with his other fingers at the same time, and somehow it works out. It's just incredible.
"When I was finally able to play that song, I was like, I felt so good about myself. I felt very accomplished because that song is very intense and very complicated. I loved the challenge of it, and it was gratifying to finally get it."
Early Mac While most of the band gravitates to the era of Fleetwood Mac that featured Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks, Jeffrey Fischer is more of a Peter Green-era Mac fan.
Peter Green was the original lead guitarist and a bit of a mythical figure among guitar aficionados because he accomplished so much in such a few years before apparently losing his mind to LSD.
"Peter Green, in my opinion, was the most progressive, in the weirdest experimental way, pushing the boundaries of what blues is, and it's just great to listen to. It's more psychedelic. It's breaking all the rules in the best ways," Fischer said.
And because the Songbirds are a group of top-notch musicians, they love including some of those early Mac tunes in their sets.
"It's really an opportunity for myself and the other instrumentalists to jam out and show off our chops," Fischer said.
But what he appreciates most about being in a Fleetwood Mac tribute band, he said, are the close harmonies. Since he's the bass player, the John McVie of the band, and McVie isn't known for overly complicated bass parts, it gives Fischer a chance to sit back, in a manner of speaking, and enjoy the vocals.
"I've always wanted to be in a band that was able to sing very tight together," Fischer said. "I would say my chorus teacher in high school really instilled this love of harmony in me. The Beach Boys, Doobie Brothers, the Eagles, all of these bands that are able to sing so close, even the Beatles, he instilled in me how beautiful harmonies can be. And not only just in terms of music but in terms of like a life philosophy, how it is just great to harmonize with one another."
The Songbirds have been a chance for Peirick to get back to musical performance, something she studied for two years at SUNY Fredonia but took a break from for a few years to take on a nursing career.
"It definitely scratched that itch for me," Peirick said. "When they asked me to come back to do this, it had been approximately eight years since I'd touched a piano. And I guess they weren't lying when they said it's like riding a bike."
The live music experience While some tribute bands put their own touches on classic songs, and others try to precisely reproduce what audiences are used to hearing from studio recordings, the Songbirds have studied Fleetwood Mac's live recordings and try to bring that energy and vitality to their performances.
"There are a lot of tribute bands that recreate the studio tracks," Hehr said. "That alone is super duper challenging. You're compensating for layers and layers of tracks (recorded in the studio). I think one of the areas we excel in is being able to listen to Fleetwood Mac and ask, 'How did they do it live? How would they have done it back in 1976? And what parts were they prioritizing?' And then that clues us into what they were thinking about -- what was the most important part of that song for them to do? Why is Lindsey not playing this part? Why is Stevie not singing this part? So, in that way, we are trying to recreate that live Fleetwood Mac feel."
Fischer likes trying to recreate the Fleetwood Mac experience as a live band because that is what it was like going to see the band in concert back in the 1970s. That discovery of something new is why people paid for a ticket in the first place.
"It carries on that torch," Fischer said. "It carries on that tradition, that live music is something you can't experience anywhere else. Every live show is different, and you're getting something unique at each show."
Peirick said the Songbirds, with their play-it-live ethos, bring something new to the tribute band concept.
And she isn't surprised to see people across generations going for it.
We all know the songs Everybody, she said, loves the music.
"It was just the golden era of California music," Peirick said. "(Rumours) was the perfect summer album that people can just pick up at any point and say, 'Wow, this is really catchy and really good.' I think that it stood the test of time because of that. I think that a lot of people, regardless of age, find it really agreeable."
She recalled talking to a trainee at work recently. She mentioned she played in a Fleetwood Mac tribute band.
"Fleetwood Mac? Who's that," the trainee asked.
So she played her three songs -- "Go Your Own Way," "Dreams," and "Everywhere."
"And she said, 'Oh, these are all Fleetwood Mac. I definitely know Fleetwood Mac.' So I think that's part of the appeal, too, right? It's the music that we all know, that we're all familiar with. But we (the Songbirds) sort of bring new energy to it because we're doing the live versions of the way they perform the songs instead of the studio versions. So it's a fresh twist on an old favorite."
Fischer is pleased to see things working out so well for a young band that started out with a half-joke of "Let's start a Fleetwood Mac tribute band."
"We're receiving a lot more attention than I ever thought we would," Fischer said. "We're playing venues that bands who have been together for years and years have not had the opportunity to play. We're just really excited to see where it takes us."
Songbirds play this Friday, Aug. 11, in Jackson Square from 7 to 9 p.m. and from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. Sept. 3 at Triangle Park in Oakfield. Admission is free.
Christian Hehr Photo by Howard Owens
Maryssa Peirick Photo by Howard Owens.
Jeffrey Fischer Photo by Howard Owens
Dave Cocuzzi Photo by Howard Owens.
Christian Hehr, Julia Riley, and Jeffrey Fischer. Photo by Howard Owens
In April, scoresof birds in the greater Washington, D.C., area began displaying strange symptoms. Their eyes were swollen and crusty; some became disoriented, started twitching, and died.
“They were having a hard time seeing,” says Nicole Nemeth of the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study. “Sometimes they don’t seem to be able to use their hind legs.”
By the end of May, similar reports were rolling in from across Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia. By June, sick birds had turned up in Delaware, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Florida, Indiana, and Pennsylvania according to the U.S. Geological Survey Wildlife Health Information Sharing Partnership.
The Batavian checked with the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Genesee County and the DEC, and while neither agency reported local incidents, the DEC did issue the following statement.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has received social media reports about bird deaths in Western New York, as well as the reports of bird deaths documented in other Eastern states.
DEC wildlife personnel have received about two dozen calls from the public reporting a dead bird, usually in their yard. There are typically many dead fledgling birds on the landscape during this time of year; normal nestling/fledgling mortality rates are high with only 25 to 50 percent of songbirds surviving their first year.
Because of the documented issues involving mass bird deaths -- mostly of fledglings of starlings, grackles, blue jays, and robins with neurologic signs and/or eye lesions -- in the mid-Atlantic states, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, DEC wildlife staff are on alert to look out for dead birds. However, there are no confirmed links between the local bird deaths and what's happening in other states.
The help of the public is appreciated to determine the nature of these unusual mortality events, which may affect the eyes and neurological system of birds. If saving a bird carcass for DEC, gloves should be used to pick up the bird. The bird should be placed in a plastic baggie, kept on ice and in the shade.
Anyone handling birds, even with gloved hands, should thoroughly wash their hands afterward. Only freshly deceased birds should be saved, due to how quickly carcasses degrade in the heat. Those collecting birds should also provide DEC with their name, address and phone number. Contact the wildlife staff at the nearest DEC regional office (https://www.dec.ny.gov/about/558.html)
DEC is also working with avian experts from Cornell Wildlife Health Lab. Further information will be provided as it becomes available.
Thanks in large part to a constantly filled bird feeder, the Winter of 2015 has seen an abundance of feathered visitors in and around our yard. This cardinal waits on a snow-covered spruce bough between feeding forays.
The smaller birds, like this junco, begin to arrive at first light -- not at sunrise mind you -- but when the first hint of gray light begins to permeate the darkness.
The blue jays arrive a bit later. After a pit stop in the apple tree to make sure the coast is clear, they will flit back and forth between the tree and the bird feeder....
as does this cardinal.
A trusting sort, the chickadee will occassionaly take seed from your hand.
Not so with the tufted titmouse....it flits about rapidly; It's been difficult to take its picture.
A blue jay in the "crow's nest" of the apple tree. The apple tree is the closest bit of cover to the bird feeder. There are small brambles and thickets just inside the small woods, but the apple tree is usually where all of our "guests" bide their time while waiting a turn at the bird feeder.
Throughut the summer there was no shortage of colorful songbirds around our home. The orioles were among the first arrivals, showing up when the apple tree blossomed. They busied themselves searching the small white blooms for food, flitting from branch to branch in their quest for tiny insects.
Perched at the very top of the tree, this oriole took time to preen.
Looking for bugs
Casting a wary eye
Belting out a few notes
Multiple mating pairs nested in the small woods along the northern edge of our property. Their pleasant song was often heard anytime during the daylight hours.
