Rockland Post

BY: Keith S. Shikowitz, Editor in Chief/Investigative Reporter

Cover bands have been all the rage since Beatlemania hit the scene in 1977 on Broadway. Dozens of bands have been covered in the intervening 50 years. One such band StevieMac, came into the spotlight in 2018 and they are still going strong. On November 7, 2025, the band played to a full house of about 1000 at the Paramount Hudson Valley Theater in Peekskill. This was their fourth show at the Paramount. They have another performance on December 19, 2025, at the Palace Theater Stamford in Stamford Ct. (for more information go to https://www.steviemactribute.com/ click on shows)

Built in 1929 as a glamorous Art Deco movie palace, the Paramount Theater offered patrons a sophisticated lounge, an opulent Wurlitzer organ, and modern air-conditioned comfort. Its faux-Tudor exterior featured a Broadway-style marquee that lit up all of downtown Peekskill. Thanks to dedicated community leaders and generous support from local corporations, foundations, and New York State, the historic cinema was beautifully restored and revitalized as a performing arts center between 2006-2009. The City hired commercial operators to book artists and run the new arts center.

Fleetwood Mac was and still is one of the greatest groups in music history. Their music spoke to their audience about life. Songs like Don’t Stop, Gypsy, Dreams, You Make Loving Fun and many others really resonated with that generation and through StevieMac they are resonating with a new generation of fans.

If you are an avid fan of Fleetwood Mac or even a casual one, this show is one that will have you dancing in the aisles or at minimum, if you don’t dance, like me who has three left feet, will have you bouncing in your seat.

The entire ensemble of musicians was great and Diane Lutz as Stevie Nicks had every nuance of Stevie Nicks and her stage presence down pat. All seven musicians performed their roles as the members of Fleetwood Mac to a tee. If you were to close your eyes and just listen, you would swear you were actually at an original Fleetwood Mac concert.

I have always liked Fleetwood Mac. I was never an avid fan, just enjoyed their music. After seeing this show, I have a whole new appreciation of their music. I also learned things about some of the songs as Diane gave a little of the history behind a few of them.

As it says on their website, which after seeing them I totally agree with;

StevieMac authentically and flawlessly pays tribute to the legends of Fleetwood Mac. In this mesmerizing theater production, StevieMac replicates the most popular hits and the most memorable live performances spanning the decades long careers of Fleetwood Mac as well as the solo careers of Stevie Nicks, Christie McVie and Lindsay Buckingham. Time period wardrobe, multimedia and story-telling transport the audience to the specific eras being celebrated, immersing the audience in a multi-sensory experience you will be talking about for years to come.

The band consists of: Diane Lutz, Andie Baldwin, Steve Ronsen, Anthony Lombardo, Paul Kosak, Adam Tese and Paul Pace.

The band was kind enough to grant me some of their precious time to do an interview. Unfortunately, due to technical issues during their sound check which caused it to go a lot longer than it usually does, our time for the interview was limited. It took me three times to get the name of the band in the correct order. I quickly saw that they are really down-to-earth people. The interview was work, but it was fun too. We had a number of laughs during it. At one point Lombardo left the room we were in for a second and when he returned, he had a bag of popcorn with him, and he was asked if he had brought enough to share with the others.

Diane Lutz is the one who formed the group. How did this come about? She was a bit puzzled about how to answer this. Apparently there are multiple versions of how they began this part of their performing lives. They decided on the quick version. “I don’t want to name the other band. We used to go by a different name, but about a year and a half ago, 2 years ago, we started this band, with some new players, and we call it StevieMac.” Lutz said.

               Diane Lutz as Stevie Nicks Stevie Nicks

When people decide to start a venture, they need to get people together to make it work. This can be done through interviews, tryouts, reading resumes and other ways. Put the wrong combination of people together and the venture flops. Put the right combination together and it soars, which is what has happened to StevieMac. How did StevieMac all get together?

“We kind of know each other from different bands.” Lutz looked to the others and continued. Yeah, we were in several different projects together. I tried out at one point, but not for this band, yeah, I would just say, I would just say the best way to describe it is that we’ve all known each other through different bands and different experiences and people who referred people to others. For example, Paul Pace was a drummer on Broadway who knew our other drummer Mike Sorrentino. So that’s how he got pulled into this project as well. Adam pointed at him and Paul just nodded in agreement.

Steve continued the answer, “We kind of just like playing together and we play in other bands together and we play well together. Let’s do this.”

Since Diane singled out Paul Pace, I went to him next. How did he feel about it? I mean, from watching you in your sound check, you guys seem to gel very well together. What’s your background in music?

“As long as I can remember living, I wanted to play the drums. That’s it. I just wanted to play the drums, and then I remember my cousin when I was 7 years old, I said, I want to play drums, and she goes, Oh, all the girls love drummers. I want to play the drums. So that’s how it started. Paul explained. He added that he just never stopped banging.

Pace did a drum solo that would make Mick Fleetwood himself look on in awe.

The conversation switched over to the sound check which Diane said took longer than usual. How long does the sound check usually take?

“Oh, I mean, it just took longer today because we were having technical difficulties on our end. It usually takes I don’t know 30 minutes. Someone chimed in with 5 hours. No, usually we run through about 3 or 4 songs for sound check and just portions of the songs to make sure that we give the front of the house, a little bit of each instrument and then they can blend vocals together.”

She has never had the pleasure of meeting Stevie Nicks and the band, at least not yet. She says she thinks their only real celebrity relationship here is Adam. “Yeah, Adam is our sax player and percussionist. She looked at Adam and asked, ‘Am I allowed to say?’ After getting an affirmative nod Lutz explained. “Adam toured with Debbie Gibson as Debbie Gibson’s saxophonist since the 80’s, and we’re lucky to have him. He still goes out on tours with Debbie Gibson.”

When songs are written, many times they feature a solo by one particular member of the band. Adam Tese did a couple of saxophone solos that had the crowd screaming.

 Steve continued the fun and took the interview to a bit more laughter by jumping in with, “I can’t due to the restraining order, I can’t be around her. I tried.”

 I have been to a lot of concerts, unfortunately Fleetwood Mac wasn’t one of them and the one thing I have never seen on stage is candles. I was wondering what they were there for or if they symbolized something attached to Fleetwood Mac. Lutz said “Yeah, just decorations. Stevie Nicks is kind of, kind of witchy in her own way.

Fleetwood Mac has a lot of songs, and they cover a lot of those. One thing I have always known, having been in musicals as a student and a special effects tech with a local opera company was it takes a long time to learn the words in songs being performed and wondered. So, the logical question is how long did it take them to learn the ones they perform?  

“Well, I mean, just to give you an example,” Lutz said, “we’re debuting Hold Me, tonight and we played it 2 times in rehearsal and once right here, so it really doesn’t take this band of super talented musicians who I think that even if you bring up everybody. I think that if we gave everybody a song and said we’re gonna play this one tonight that everyone could come ready and do it off the cuff.”

The three new songs you said that you would do, anybody can chime in and answer. Why pick those particular songs of all the other songs you could have picked, why debut those.

“They’re ones that are really popular that we think are missing from the catalog, so we wanted to make sure we got them in. We added Holiday Road because obviously we’re into the holiday season now, so we wanna give everybody some pre-celebration music.” Lutz explained.

Now, next I’m going to go to each one of you because I’m sure each one of you has a different answer for this, favorite song that you do.

Diane’s answer was Sara. Steve’s response was skip me. Andie gave an explanation of hers, “It’s not my favorite to sing. I mean, I do love it, but my favorite song in the whole catalog is probably Little Lies. I just think like the way they built the song is perfect.”

Out of the blue, Steve said, “Oh wait, now I know, The Chain.”  Diane, with a little laugh in her voice said, “I knew you were going to say The Chain.”

Anthony had to get a little help with the title of his favorite song. He knew the background of it. “I would say my favorite song today to play is, what’s the one that was written about the affair with the lighting guy because he has a crush on the lighting. You Make Loving Fun.”

The song was written by Christie McVie while she was splitting up with John McVie and having an affair with the lighting guy. So, John McVie said to her, “Who did you write this song about?, You make Loving Fun” And she was like, oh, our dog.

Paul’s Kosak’s favorite,” I have to say Gypsy.” He then went on to spell his last name to make sure I got it right in the story. As did Adam, whose favorite is the one that has the most sax in it, Gold Dust as is Paul Pace’s.

“We all like, we like all of the songs honestly just certain ones resonate with us.” Diane stated.

There is a saying that my mother used to tell me. “Man plans and God Laughs.” There’s also Murphy’s Law, “Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong at the most inopportune moment.”

When you get everything together, and feel like you’ve got it, you’re really gelling on stage and what was one maybe a funny moment that you had on stage during a performance that really was like, uh oh, like you know an uh oh moment.

Kosak went first. “There was a day where the power went out during the drum solo on Tusk, the drummer had to play like a 10-minute drum solo while we got the power back up.”

Diane went next. “There was actually another time when we lost power at an outdoor show and Steve and I started Landslide. We got the audience to do a sing along with us. He came up and we acoustically played and sang, and he sang we got the audience to just jump in and sing Landslide.”

Steve completed the story, “I think I grabbed whatever instrument was working. I plugged into the bass ring…”

Diane asked Andie about hers. “My worst one that was just me was when we had the show at my college. It was like my final senior performance, and it was when my keyboard was having issues with power and I start the Rhiannon show at the beginning. The very beginning of the show, all by myself on piano and I’m like the only one out on stage. I get maybe 2 or three notes in and just power off, and it was the worst thing fumbling with the keyboard. I don’t know if I got it repowered or if I just went to my other keyboard so that was the worst for me.”

A funny and unexpected moment during the interview was when two ladies just came into the room where we were conducting the interview stood next to Pace for a minute or two and started talking to each other. I had to say to them I’m sorry ladies; I’m doing an interview here. They apologized and quickly exited.

“I have to say though, I don’t remember these bad moments for the most part. They don’t come to the forefront for me. What I remember most is are those moments when we’re on stage and I get chills because I’m like wow, I’m so overwhelmed with how good this band sounds. I mean there’s always times when someone forgets to do something or somebody does something different whatever there is such a good safety net here that if one person goes off rails or doesn’t do what they’re supposed to do or how the song goes, the whole thing does just come right back together within a couple of beats and usually without the audience noticing.” Diane explained.

No matter how much you rehearse, there are times when you are going to draw a blank on the words to a song during a performance. It happens even to the best of musicians. How many times have they forgotten the words and just standing like uh…

With a little giggle, Diane said, “One time I forgot the words, and I came straight over to you, looking at Steve, and I definitely made it look like it was part of the act. It was part of the thing. It was part of the thing, and I said I was mouthing to you, what are the words right now?”

People have their heroes when they are growing up and always wonder what they would say to them if they ever got the opportunity to meet them. If you guys had the opportunity to meet them, what would be a question you would ask them, What would you say to them?

Pace began, “I would just talk about life. I wouldn’t have bothered about that stuff.” He would ask him about the band and about life stuff.

Steve was kibbitzing so I went to him next. “I have a million questions to ask, Lindsay.” What’s the one thing he would really want to know? I would ask him about his guitar, the Turner guitar that are hard to find, and forget expensive. I had one in my hands once. It’s a tricky instrument.”

“I mean, obviously if Christine were still here, I would have loved to have asked her like I feel like when she kind of felt the turning point of like, I feel like all musicians and I mean, especially myself as a piano player, like when do you feel like you’ve made it and you’ve gotten to a certain point where you can just fully kind of embrace the music and you’re not constantly working and grinding so you get to where you want to be. I want to ask like what was that turning point like for her and you know, so because obviously the band had a turning point. Everyone did so.” Andie responded.

Anthony said, “I would, I would probably just, say thanks for writing this amazing music and sharing your lives and your stuff with us because now we get to bring it to all these people and have fun doing this. This is fun.

This is this is… It’s work, it’s work, soundcheck and rehearsal and costumes and all the back-end stuff that goes on all day. But when we get to play for a couple of hours for all these people and help them forget about the planet for a little while, that makes it all work. So, I would thank them for the music.

Of course, Diane picked Stevie to ask something, “I would ask Stevie if she always had the level of confidence that she had from like the moment she was born like since she was a child. Because when she, there’s a story of her she’s telling the story of her walking through a college campus, and she says she sees all the people around on the grass and hanging out and she thinks to herself as she’s walking across the campus. She hasn’t made it yet. She’s thinking to herself that she’s walking across the campus they don’t know who I am like that was the thought in her head and to me that level of confidence is wild.”

She turns the story to herself, in a little comparison to Nicks, “Like I’m a fairly confident person, but it took me many years to get confident, you know, I’m in my 40s where, you know, where she, when she was in her 20s was like just wait like her level of confidence blew my mind so I would just love to talk to her a little bit about that was it, you know.”

Every person has a favorite moment in their lives. Performers are always asked about theirs in their professional lives. What are some favorite moments on stage for these people? The one thing that happened in one show that really that sticks in your mind as like, wow, this was like the moment for me.

So, I have to say anytime I’m singing Landslide. There are moments so there isn’t one particular moment, but the audience, their energy just hits me in the face sometimes on stage and I end up crying.”

She looked around and asked the band, “Any bet’s tonight. Am I gonna cry tonight or not? It was basically no bet, they all figured she would.

“Oh me. Oh man, I like when the audience sings back to me, so there’s a spot I do and Go Your Own Way and they get on their feet, the lights go up and they’re singing back to me.  That’s a cool moment. Steve stated.

Andie feels like everything is really cool. “I’d say maybe because I’m the younger member of the band and I haven’t been to… I haven’t had as like big audiences as you know, maybe a lot of the other band members or I’d say all of you guys so whenever we have the really big crowd that is boy would be like a tie between when we went to Seaside and the casino, yeah, those are crazy so for me.

Anthony said for him it’s Gypsy. “Because Diane does the intro alone and I get, I get goosebumps and I think of my grandmother, for some reason I make a connection. She, she dressed, she dressed like Stevie is in that video that’s on MTV or was on MTV. So, every night when we play this, I, I have a, I have a hard time. I get emotional. Nobody sees it, but I get, I get every time we play this song, I get, I think of my grandmother and it’s good, good stuff.”

Adam said his is Silver Springs,, because it hits home. “If you know this song, I can’t talk about it.”

Paul Pace I would say just the feedback from the crowd, just hearing the noise and reaction that kind of gets you going. OK, yeah, we do feed off the crowd.”

Two things any performance, especially one on stage has to have that needs to be almost flawless are the lighting and sound. Paramount’s lighting person Rosie and sound guy Nick did a fantastic job of adding to the excitement of the show. Images were constantly running on a screen behind the band that seemed to be geared to each of the songs as they played.

One of my favorite songs of Fleetwood Mac’s is Don’t Stop. I was disappointed when they didn’t play it in the main concert. But I was pleasantly surprised that it was the final song in the encore. It’s a long video, but worth the watch.

After the concert was over the band did a meet and greet out in the lobby and people were coming over, shaking their hands and raving about the performance.

One lady said to me, “I saw Fleetwood Mac many years ago and this was a fantastic homage to them.”

A gentleman who sat next to me said that he loved listening to them and this brought back a lot of good memories.

This is a performance that anyone who loves or even likes the music of Fleetwood Mac NEEDS to go see.