Having started in 1989, Donna the Buffalo has passed the marker as their 25th year as a band and have proven to be a consistent purveyor of American music. They kick off their 2015 Summer tour at the Blue Heron Festival in Sherman, NY over the weekend of the 4th of July before heading up to their stomping grounds in Trumansburg, NY to celebrate the 25th annual Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance mid-month, a festival Donna started, and are still the driving force behind. Late July brings them through Rochester, NY and then over to Kalamazoo, MI and Lander, WY for a couple of shows on their way out West in August for performances in Missoula, MT, a return to the Grand Targhee Bluegrass Festival in Wyoming, and then back through Boulder and Denver for a couple of Colorado shows.
Mid-August sees their return East with stops in New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. They have a short break from the road and pick back up again leading into the Fall in mid-September playing in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Virginia, New York, and West Virginia, as well as October’s The Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival in North Carolina and Magnolia Fest in Live Oak, FL. Stay tuned for more Fall shows to be announced.
Donna the Buffalo is Jeb Puryear (vocals, electric guitar) and Tara Nevins (vocals, guitar, fiddle, accordion, scrubboard) joined by David McCracken (Hammond B3 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.”
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 On Tour
7/3-5 Fri-Sun - Great Blue Heron Music Festival - Sherman, NY
7/16-19 Thu-Sun - GrassRoots Festival of Music & Dance - Trumansburg, NY
7/31 Fri - Rochester Public Market - Rochester, NY
8/1 Sat - Bell’s Eccentric Cafe - Kalamazoo, MI
8/4 Tue - Lander Live @ Jaycee Park - Lander, WY
8/6 Thu - Top Hat Lounge - Missoula, MT
8/7 Fri - Grand Targhee Bluegrass Festival - Alta, WY
8/8 Sat - Oriental Theater - Denver, CO
8/9 Sun - eTown Hall - Boulder, CO
8/14 Fri - Inspire Moore Winery - Naples, NY
8/15 Sat - Nelson Ledges Quarry Park - Garrettsville, OH
8/18 Tue - Eight Great Tuesdays @ Liberty Park - Erie, PA
9/17 Thu - Stafford Palace Theater - Stafford Spring, CT
9/18 Fri - New Hope Winery - New Hope, PA
9/19 Sat - Tally Ho Theater - Leesburg, VA
9/20 Sun - The Tin Pan - Richmond, VA
9/25 Fri - Towne Crier - Beacon, NY
9/26 Sat - Westcott Theater - Syracuse, NY
9/27 Sun - The American Music Festival for the Lake - Lake George, NY
10/15 Thu - Rose G. Smith Theater - Williamson, WV
10/ 8-11 Thu-Sun - Shakori Hills GrassRoots Fest - Silk Hope, NC
10/17-18 Sat-Sun - Magnolia Fest - Live Oak, FL
