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Music

At Fleetwood Mac Tribute Concert, Glacier Marching Band to Join in to Recreate Famous Collaboration

The 1979 track "Tusk," written by Lindsey Buckingham, features the University of Southern California Marching Band, providing a blast of sound

By Mike Kordenbrock
Musicians playing at "The Music of Fleetwood Mac" tribute concert. Photo courtesy of Meredith Patterson

Since 2023, a group of local musicians has been selling out shows that pay tribute to the storied rock band Fleetwood Mac, but this time around, they’re doing things a little differently.

For starters, “The Music of Fleetwood Mac,” led by singer Meredith Patterson in the role of frontwoman Stevie Nicks, will be playing their first show at Flathead Valley Community College’s (FVCC) Wachholz College Center. And the size of the new venue has offered them a chance to recreate a version of the song “Tusk” that pays tributes to one of Fleetwood Mac’s wildest collaborations.

The 1979 track, written by Lindsey Buckingham, featured the University of Southern California Marching Band, providing a blast of sound on a track that’s already thrumming with a drum beat that gives it a kind of propulsive energy. The recording, which took place on the field at Dodger Stadium, was filmed and made its way into a music video for the song.

Later, on its 1979 “Tusk Tour,” the band went so far as to bring the Trojan Marching Band onto the stage with them, something they’ve recreated for other performances since. That’s where the Glacier High Marching Band comes into the picture. Jeremy Reinbolt, the drummer for “The Music of Fleetwood Mac,” has long known David Barr, the band director at Glacier High School.

Patterson said that when she started reaching out to local high school bands, Barr cited his connection to Reinbolt, before signing on to the collaboration. The two have played together for years through the Glacier Symphony, and speaking about a week before the Feb. 8 show, Barr said that it’s an honor for the marching band to be involved in this.

About 50 marching band members will play in on “Tusk,” which is expected to be one of the last songs played at the upcoming show. Prior to that, Patterson said she’s gotten them tickets so they can sit in and see the performance.

Reinbolt actually wrote the arrangements for the Glacier marching band to play, and Barr says his students have been doing well with it, even as it requires them to venture into some new musical territory. The marching band’s brass players, for example, don’t typically play as high as they’re required to go for “Tusk.”

The band may also be playing in on an encore song, which would likewise have students playing a less familiar key.

“I teach them ‘Hey, we should be able to play all 12 major keys,’” Barr said. “And this is one that’s farthest away from our comfort zone. So it’s been great to get into it and have them play it.”

With seven or eight musicians onstage to begin with, electrified and connected to amps, Barr said he thinks the addition of dozens of marching band students will add another layer to the wall of sound that will hit the crowd.

“It’s going to be cool,” he said, adding that it’s something of a “once-in-a-lifetime situation.”

Additionally, Barr said he’s excited for his students to get a chance to check out McClaren Hall, which is the concert and event space at the Wachholz Center.

“Most of these kids haven’t been inside that building, so it’ll be really cool for them to see one of the premier performance venues of Northwest Montana.”

Patterson said that the Wachholz Center’s executive director, Matt Laughlin, had seen “The Music of Fleetwood Mac” perform and approached them about coming to FVCC for a show. It will be their largest venue yet, having previously played shows at the smaller O’Shaugnessy Center in Whitefish.

The band feature’s Patterson’s husband Dustin Brayley (who is the lead singer and guitarist for Trans-Siberian Orchestra) on guitar and vocals, Halladay Quist on vocals and banjo, Reinbolt on drums, Ross Bridgeman on keys, Matt Seymour on bass and Matt Brua as the lead guitar player.

Patterson, who has performed in multiple Broadway productions, said that the idea to put on tribute shows was born out of a show that she and Brayley did at the Flatrock Theater in North Carolina years ago for a music series called Music on the Rock.

The show did well, and she said that a few years back they started thinking about the possibility of bringing something like it to the Flathead. In 2023, they played two Fleetwood Mac concerts, which were well received. More shows followed in 2024, which included branching out into the music of the Beach Boys, Elton John, Billy Joel and Huey Lewis.

In taking on Fleetwood Mac’s music, Patterson said the band isn’t aspiring to impersonate them, as much as bring their energy, essence and sound to the stage.

The first four or five times they performed, she said that “Tusk” wasn’t on their set list, but people kept asking about it. It’s considered by critics to be one of the more anomalous songs from Fleetwood Mac’s wide-ranging musical catalogue which Patterson said has so many hits that to perform all of them would require a three hour show, which this isn’t.

“The band itself is so iconic, “ Patterson said. “And as a musician trying to match that sound, that’s the fun of it.”

Merie Productions’s “The Music of Fleetwood Mac: A Tribute Concert” is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 8 at 7 p.m. For more information, including to buy tickets, go to https://www.wachholzcollegecenter.org/Online/default.asp

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