The truth behind the name of Donna the Buffalo: It actually was not a slurred MC… and it was never actually the name of the band.
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They had a session trying to figure out the name of the band and a musician friend, kind of as a joke, suggested, “Dawn of the Buffalo”. The band at the time including Tara and Jeb all herd “Donna the Buffalo” and reacted positively to that. They knew they wanted “buffalo” in the name and they’re not sure why they liked it, they just did and from the first show on they have been known as “Donna The Buffalo”.
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To hear the REAL story of how DtB got their name listen in to this podcast interview with Jeremiah Greer, DtB interview starts at the top of the 2nd hr.
Author, Diane Farineau, is researching & co-writing The Festival Project, a photo book project which features the combined works of photographers Chester Simpson & Milo Farineau
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One of the highlights at the Infamous Stringduster’s new Festival “The Festy” was a Sunday appearance by Larry Keel and Natural Bridge. The trio quickly became a quartet as they were joined on stage by guitarist and Larry’s brother, Gary. When asked if they played together a lot, Larry responded “It’s rare. But when we do festivals in the area, he comes out and does some picking with us, it’s always so fun! ”
After their rousing set, the band spoke with members of the press and then settled in to just hang out for a little bit. “Everyone’s just here to want to hang out for a bit, which we don’t get to do much” said Mark Shimick. “The Stringdusters will play a lot of traditional bluegrass festivals, where we play some jam band festivals, so we don’t get together that much so it’s nice to see
them.”
The band is known to end up picking in the parking lot on occasion, which they enjoy, and Larry explained; “when I started going to festivals/fiddlers conventions, that’s what it was all about, before being a performer at them it was about all our friends getting together, making a big ol’ pot of soup or something, playing a bunch of music all night and then all day, then playing all night again. That’s where you get your chops down, where you learn to play. It’s very special.” Jenny agreed “That’s a great place to go when you’re just learning, listening and absorbing and getting in to the pulse of it all, watching others, the old-timers, new-timers and everything in between, and then slowly you start picking yourself, it’s a great way to absorb it and take it further, if you want to or just enjoy it for what it’s worth. “
The band has had a busy but fun year, listing some of their highlights “we’ve had a wonderful season this year, Telluride, Grand Targhee, Music on the Mountaintop, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in San Francisco was really awesome too, French Broad, Watermelon Park.”
I couldn’t resist asking for a fishing update as well, “I haven’t done as much of that as I’ve wanted to,” said Larry, “I did some out in Idaho, fly fishing. I fish every kind of way I can, I do a lot of bass fishing, I did some fishing in the Outer Banks this summer, some saltwater fishing. I caught a lot of bass in Georgia. Every chance I get, I go!”
I wondered what it was like to be on the road as a musical couple, Mark pointed out (and Larry agreed) “Jenny is the bedrock of the band, seriously, she takes care of a lot of stuff to let Larry have his creativity and she’ll let me know if I have something I need to do.” “We wouldn’t want it any other way,” explained Jenny, “we knew, one way or another, we wanted to work together
and be together, so here it is!”
When asked about the noticeable absence of a banjo in the group, Larry explained: “We had our banjo player for a while, he’s out in Colorado now, he’s restarted up his old band and we’re back to our trio that we’ve had for 10 years, and that’s our core part of the band but we have a few very special guests we like to bring in to make it a quartet. Today it was Nate Leath on the fiddle, which, he’s as great fiddler player as there is, really. We have quite a few special guests we like to get out, like Will Lee on the 5 string banjo, he’s a master and a wonderful singer too. We sort of switch it up, have trios, have a banjo or a fiddle, we like to mix it up. And I think our audience likes that. It keeps it fresh for them and it keeps it fresh for us.
When asked where their evening was headed, Larry smiled “I’m looking forward to picking with as many of these folks as I can, we don’t always get to hang out, so it’s sure nice when we do!”
Great interview with Jeb Puryear as a show preview for the Donna the Buffalo StageOne show in Fairfield, CT tonight!
Expect ‘The Herd’ in Fairfield to stampede Donna the Buffalo tonight
Longtime Donna the Buffalo watchers have watched the group ebb and flow over the years, but in shows this summer, one thing has been obvious: The current lineup has started to gel and groove in sometimes breathtaking and heart-pumping ways.
Who is Donna the Buffalo?
One of the groovin’est bands in America — at 21 years old now, a bona-fide American institution. Donna the Buffalo over the years has woven a colorful, eclectic mix of old-time bluegrass, Cajun and zydeco, folk, reggae, dusty Americana and San Francisco organ jam-band rock’n’ roll into a warm, dance-all-night vibe all its own.
Actually, the vibe belongs to the Trumansburg, N.Y.-based band and its legion of fans, who have affectionally dubbed themselves “The Herd” — and who will no doubt be out in force tonight for Donna the Buffalo’s first gig at the Fairfield Theatre Co.’s intimate StageOne.
“I think we’re kind of hitting our new stride,” acknowledged guitarist and co-founder Jeb Puryear, who with his longtime friend, playing partner and co-founder Tara Nevins, who plays fiddle, accordion, guitar and scrub board, constitute the core of Donna the Buffalo. They are the only original members. The band also includes Dave McCracken on keyboards, Vic Stafford on drums and newest member Kyle Spark on bass guitar.
While the band is based in Trumansburg, near Ithaca, N.Y., all three of the newer members hail from North Carolina.
Nevins and Puryear — prolific songwriters who have played together for 25 years and known each other for 30 — talked about the fun they’ve had as the current lineup has grown together.
“It’s definitely our best band lineup ever, as far as … everyone being really on the same page musically …” said Nevins. “It just feels easy … it’s fun! The groove just feels great!”
Puryear said he can’t say exactly what’s changed, but he can feel it — and it’s exciting to be making music that feels new in a band that’s been together so long.
“I think we’ve got a really good chemistry right now … It’s hard to put your finger on, but I think we’ve got something … “It’s just exciting to see where it’s going … I think the band’s starting to move together on stuff that, maybe in the past, me and Tara might have done alone. …
“Every day is like a new day.We tend to be very sensitive to our surroundings … I mean like subtle things … It’s very alive … I think that’s one of the reasons why we’ve been able to do it for a very long time and still get excited about it.”
Great post in the Portland, ME Press Herald for Donna the Buffalo’s show at the Empire Dine and Dance tonight!
Check out these excerpts from a preview writeup by AIMSEL PONTI:
“Oh give me a home where Donna the Buffalo roams”
Wow, that was bad. So sorry.
Be that as it may, Donna the Buffalo has a big show tonight at Empire Dine & Dance, and I’m in the throes of “I just discovered a really great band,” hence my reimaging of “Home on the Range.”
This week, I’m also making two suggestions for Friday night with Dan Knudsen at Strange Maine and a CD-release show from Dana Gross at One Longfellow Square. Have at it.
If nothing else, I love the name Donna the Buffalo. However, after spending some time at www.donnathebuffalo.com, I realized that this band from Trumansburg, N.Y., is even cooler than its name. Here’s what I learned: “Donna the Buffalo’s eclectic and often socially conscious music has its base in traditional mountain music and is infused with elements of Cajun/zydeco, rock, folk, reggae, and country.
“The group’s core is vocalist Tara Nevins, who plays fiddle, guitar, accordion and scrub board, and guitarist Jeb Puryear. Keyboardist Dave McCracken, bassist Kyle Spark, and drummer Vic Stafford complete the ensemble.”
So there’s your background, and now here’s five random comments on the band, courtesy of 20 minutes spent at www.myspace.com/donnathebuffalo:
• Nevins has a terrific voice.
• “Locket and Key” is an entirely enjoyable song, so go listen to it.
• I feel entirely late to the party upon learning that this fantastic band has been at it for 21 years.
• I dig the lyrics to “No Place like the Right Time.” For example: “Sit and watch the tall grass grow/ I run and hide from the things I know/ Catch the dust up in my eye/ All is lookin’ different as the years go by.”
• Puryear also sings, and he’s got a groovy voice, as evidenced in “Positive Friction.”
Donna the Buffalo and Railroad Earth played the FM Kirby Center in Wilkes Barre, PA on September 11, 2010.
Check out some fun pics from the show on the DeadHook Forum; and in the meantime here is a great video of DtB from the night:
Here is an except from a show review: “The F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts kicked off its new season Saturday with a double shot of hard-to-classify, rootsy bands as Railroad Earth and Donna the Buffalo each made its Wilkes-Barre debut.
And in a way, the show was the antithesis of the big productions that usually come to the area. The stage was filled with musical instruments and equipment, nothing else. No frills, no huge video screens, fireworks or dancing party girls – it was all about the music.”
Dehlia Lowis very happy to announce official endorsement ofD’Addario Strings and Intellitouch Tuners. There are few things more important to musicians than the tools they use while performing.
“There are hundreds of brands to choose from for everything from your instruments, to picks, to microphones, to strings, to the boots you wear! Between the 5 of us, we’ve tried just about every brand of strings and tuners, and we’re proud to say that D’Addario and Intellitouch are our choice for reliability, accuracy, and endurance. We’re grateful for the opportunity to endorse quality products that we’ve used for years, and are happy the two companies have faith in our music and the future momentum of the band.”
The Mountain Xpress writes, ” In three short years, bluegrass act Dehlia Low has gone from a relatively unknown local quintet playing holes in walls (and the Xpress acoustic stage at Bele Chere!) to a slot at MerleFest and sponsorships from D’Addario Stings and Intellitouch Tuners. In the group’s April ‘Low-Down‘ newsletter they wrote, ‘Our live recording is almost complete… well maybe half way… we hope to have it out by the end of May, we’ll keep you posted! We also just got the final cut of our DVD from our ‘Jammin at Hippie Jacks’ performance last May, soon to be released on PBS.’ Add to that a recent tour with The Shannon Whitworth Band and a steady roster of show dates — including the Grey Eagle on Friday, May 28. 9 p.m. $8 in advance / $10 day of show.
David Gans is starting off this weekend with a his run of Shows in North Carolina. He starts off at the Shakori Hills Festival in Silk Hope. Then he heads over to Asheville, Greensboro, Boone, and one secret surprise show that has not yet been announced. Check out this article from a recent interview with Ryan Snyder from Yes! Weekly in Greensboro:
‘Dead Hour’ DJ and guitarist gets a little help from friends for NC shows
Songwriter, DJ and Deadhead David Gans trips out east for a run of fullband shows (photo by Bob Minkin).
It’s been a long, strange trip for David Gans. The quirky, inventive guitarist and songwriter has affixed innumerable other designations to his name over his 40-year career, all in the course of just trying to write a few songs and play a few shows. Among them are writer and author — Gans was a music journalist who wrote for several San Francisco publications in the ’70s and has published books on the Grateful Dead and the Talking Heads. But Deadheads who like their doses — the musical kind mind you — straight from the heart know Gans as the founder and still-host of the long-running and widely syndicated “Grateful Dead Radio Hour.” Gans has been in the booth for over 1000 broadcasts and as of a recent YES! Weekly interview, was working on episode no. 1127, but his journey into the booth doesn’t quite play out like one might expect.
Gans saw his first Dead show in 1972 at the behest of his then roommate and songwriting partner and it was only a few months later, he said, that he started to get a handle on what the band was doing.
“I grew up on the Beatles and was a big fan of early ’70s singer/ songwriters, the acoustic pop/folk/rock back then. The Dead expanded my horizons, so I began to get more into playing guitar and improvising,” Gans said. “It also just made me realize that songwriting could be literature. You could write stuff with depth to that that took a little more work to engage it than the pop stuff that just kind of tells you everything it knows in the first couple of listens.”
A few years later, while promoting his book Playing In the Band in 1985, Gans went onto a local radio show to produce a series of documentaries for the station and eventually began contributing regularly. They eventually asked him to take over the show and after other stations expressed interest in carrying it, it led to the “Grateful Dead Hour”’s eventual syndication.
“Without ever making a plan to do so, I sort of wandered into this thing of being the producer and host and still am 25 years later,” Gans said. “I never lost interest making my own music or all the other music out there in the world, but it became a pretty fun way to make a living.”
Though he insists that he never became a full-blown Deadhead, the band’s influence is felt all throughout Gans’ own music, from his ragged, witty Americana lyrical repertoire to his brazenly adventurous solo stage act to the Dead covers he weaves into it with regularity. Gans has become both known and celebrated for his live looping techniques, playing the role of his own rhythmic accompaniment, but for an upcoming trek to the Southeast for a string of shows, Gans will be meeting up with a few friends from North Carolina for a somewhat rare run of full-band shows on the East Coast.
Among them are Donna the Buffalo keyboardist and Greensboro resident Dave McCracken, Donna the Buffalo and Acoustic Syndicate bassist Jay Sanders, Virginia Daredevils mandolin player Bobby Miller, Biscuit Burners steel player Bill Cardine and Blue Rags drummer Mike Rhodes, who Gans has never performed alongside. With such a talented cast behind him, Gans will be setting his loop station aside for this occasion for obvious reasons, though he will be teaching a looping clinic this Saturday afternoon at the Shakori Hills Festival. [Gans and Friends performs on Wednesday, April 28th at the Blind Tiger]
“When you’re playing with a looping device, it’s like playing with a musician who’s a real dick. It can’t hear you and it can’t adjust,” Gans emphasized.” When you’re playing with a human, nothing’s perfect of course, but everybody listens to each other and the feel for what you’re doing sort of adjusts. It’s also just much more fun when you’re playing live to have others with you.”
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