Starting Rumours
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When you're a musician, you can go your own way: however, for the past decade, guitarist Lance Horwedel has been content performing in popular Fleetwood Mac cover act Rumours.
"If you go back 10 years, that's when Fleetwood Mac reunited," said Horwedel, who graduated from Edison High School in 1986. "I had been working with tribute band Backbeat at that time, and they were doing really well, so I thought now is the time because Fleetwood Mac is hot."
Also at that time, Horwedel had been in a rock duo with Jill Dahnke, whose voice was often compared to Fleetwood Mac songstress Stevie Nicks. One thing led to another and soon Rumours was becoming one of the hottest tribute acts in Northern Ohio. So is Horwedel surprised the band is still together 10 years later?
"No I'm not, because Fleetwood Mac's music is still being played on classic rock radio, oldies radio, it's still all over the place," Horwedel said. "It's just that it's not really heavy music, kind of like The Eagles. It's sort of timeless. Fleetwood Mac wrote a lot of good songs and some really good albums. It seems apart they didn't do as well, but when you got them all together, you end up with a really good album."
Covering Fleetwood Mac and its members' solo material, Rumours has the band's entire career covered. This is beginning with the group's Bob Welch era, which is pre-Stevie Nicks/Lindsey Buckingham, all the way up to the group's 1997 reunion project "The Dance." In between, Horwedel said fans will hear solo songs from Buckingham ("National Lampoon's Vacation" theme song "Holiday Road") and Nicks (from "Edge of Seventeen" to "Stand Back").
The band's dead-on performance is enhanced by some tongue-in-cheek fun from Horwedel, who takes over the Buckingham role when on stage.
"I don't have a lot of hair, but I just wear whatever wig I need to wear for that gig," Horwedel said. "It's an afro that I've trimmed down. It's funny, after the gig I can go out in the crowd and ask people how the band was and they don't know who I am."
Also adding to the fun is that just like Nicks and Buckingham, back in the day Dahnke and Horwedel dated briefly. The guitarist said such onstage tension, which fueled Fleetwood Mac's most prolific period, is feigned for effect. Still, it's this attention to detail that continues to make Rumours an entertaining evening. The group is scheduled to appear at 9 p.m., Oct. 20 at Cabana Jack's.
"The reason you should come down to Cabanas is that it's smoke free now so all the people that used to be driven out of there by carbon monoxide can enjoy it without going home with burning eyes and bad sinus infections," Horwedel said. "So just come out, hang out and enjoy a night of good music."
Rumours
WHEN: 9 p.m., October 20
WHERE: Cabana Jacks, 202 Columbus Ave., Sandusky
COST: $5 per person
INFO: 419-625-4008 or cabanajacks.com
John Benson can be reached at jbenson@funcoast.com.