Donna the Buffalo just passed the marker as their 25th year as a band and have proven to be a consistent purveyor of American music. What’s the recipe? To be sure, it’s infused with more spices than you’ll find at a Cajun cookout by way of a southern-fried, rockin’ country old-time jamboree. “For the dizzying array of styles and genres with which they work, Donna The Buffalo maintain a surprising level of consistency. The New York-based band has played around with folk, zydeco, and many other musical ideas over the course of their 25-year career, but they retain a sharp focus that has helped them create some truly lasting music,” writes Elmore Magazine.
Donna the Buffalo will be celebrating the New Year in Florida starting with three nights at Skippers in Tampa (12/30/14- 1/1/15) and three days of shows at the Green Parrot in Key West (1/2-4), followed by shows in Boca Raton, Orlando, and Valdosta before making their way up for further shows in Atlanta and Raleigh. They pick back up again on Winter Tour towards the end of January with shows in Asheville, NC and Falls Church, VA. February brings the band to Charlotteville, VA; Saranac Lake, NY; Ardmore PA and then back down to Florida to Miami for the Virginia Key GrassRoots Festival. Stay tuned to DonnaTheBuffalo.com for additional Winter Dates.
Donna the Buffalo is Jeb Puryear (vocals, electric guitar) and Tara Nevins (vocals, guitar, fiddle, accordion, scrubboard) joined by David McCracken (Hammond organ, Honer Clavinet & piano), Kyle Spark (bass) and Mark Raudabaugh (drums). “It's been really fun with this lineup,” Puryear says. “You get to the point where you're playing on a really high level, things are clicking and it's like turning on the key to a really good car. It just goes.”
“You have to do just what you want to do, and everyone likes different things,” Nevins says. “Both Jeb and I come from this background of old-time fiddle music, which is very natural, very real, very under-produced, and all about coming from the gut—flying by the seat of your pants. So we have that in us, too.”
Donna the Buffalo debuted their first studio album in five years Tonight, Tomorrow and Yesterday, in the spring of 2013 via Sugar Hill Records. All Music Guide says the album, “highlights everything this consistent band does, and it has a warm, live-sounding production… This is what 21st century Americana sounds like, a little bit of this and that from anywhere wrapped up into a poignant, jamming dance reel, a place where the past and history meet easily in the immediate now and everybody feels like dancing.”
The group draws its inspiration from a cherished part of the American heritage: the old-time music festivals of the south that drew entire towns and counties together. “Those festivals were so explosive, and the community and the feeling of people being with each other, that's the feeling we were shooting for in our music,” Puryear says. “Donna the Buffalo is an extension of the joy we've found.”
Over the years, the band has also built a following that proudly calls itself The Herd, along with a well-deserved reputation for crafting social narratives and slipstream grooves without equal. To merely call this “roots music” does it disservice, for the roots nurtured by Puryear and Nevins run wild, deep and strong—a tribute to how much Donna the Buffalo marries musical trailblazing and tradition.
"It’s a great feeling to promote such a feeling of community, like you’re really part of something that’s happening, like a movement or a positive force…” Nevins says, “All those people that come and follow you and you recognize them and you become friends with them — you’re all moving along for the same purpose. It is powerful. It’s very powerful, actually."
Donna the Buffalo has toured the nation for over twenty five years with an ever-evolving grassroots sound and plans to keep on doing so for many years to come.
Donna the Buffalo On Tour
11/13 Thu - Narrows Center For the Arts - Fall River, MA
11/14 Fri - Lake Placid Center for the Arts - Lake Placid, NY #
11/15 Sat - Buffalo Iron Works - Buffalo, NY #
12/4 Thu - Infinity Hall - Norfolk, CT
12/5 Fri - State Theater - Ithaca, NY *
12/6 Sat - Jay Peak Resort - Jay, VT *
12/7 Sun - The Egg - Hart Theatre - Albany, NY *
12/12 Fri - Ziggys By The Sea - Wilmington, NC &
12/13 Sat - Ziggy’s - Winston-Salem, NC >
12/30/14- 1/1/15 Tue-Thu - Skipper's Smokehouse - Tampa, FL
1/2-4/15 Fri-Sun - Green Parrot - Key West, FL
1/6 Tue - The Funky Biscuit - Boca Raton, FL
1/7 Wed - The Social - Orlando, FL
1/8 Thu - Lucky’s - Valdosta, GA
1/9 Fri - Red Clay Theater - Duluth, GA (Atlanta)
1/10 Sat - The Lincoln Theatre - Raleigh, NC
1/23 Fri - The Orange Peel - Asheville, NC <
1/24 Sat - State Theatre - Falls Church, VA <
2/6 Fri - Mauch Chunk Opera House - Jim Thorpe, PA
2/7 Sat - Jefferson Theater - Charlottesville, VA
2/12 Thu -The Waterhole Winter Carnival - Saranac Lake, NY
2/14 Sat - Ardmore Music Hall - Ardmore, PA
2/19-22 Thu- Sun - Virginia Key GrassRoots Festival - Miami, FL
2/27 Fri - Neighborhood Theater - Charlotte, NC
3/20 Fri - City Winery - Nashville, TN
4/16-19 Thu-Sun - Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival - Silk Hope, NC
4/23-25 Thu-Sat - MerleFest - Wilkesboro, NC
7/3-5 Fri-Sun - Great Blue Heron Music Festival - Sherman, NY
* w/ Hot Tuna
^ w/ Boy = Girl
# w/ The Falconers
& w/ The Deluge
> w/ Rock n Roll Attoms
< w/ Driftwood
$ w/ Big Leg Emma
