Finger Lakes GrassRoots Culture Camp Schedule Announced! Music, Workshops & More

GrassRoots Culture Camp at Trumansburg Fairgrounds on July 16-19

Four Days of Music and Dance Workshops
Leading Up to The 27th Annual Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival in Trumansburg, NY

See the full lineup and schedule →  www.grassrootsfest.org/culture-camp-1-1/

TRUMANSBURG, NY —  Over the past few decades, the Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance has grown to be more than just a single event in Trumansburg, NY and this year the latest addition to the roster returns for its sophomore year: the GrassRoots Culture Camp 2017 runs from Sunday through Wednesday, July 16-19, the four days leading up to the 27th annual GrassRoots Festival which takes place July 20-23. Both the camp and the festival are held at the Trumansburg Fairgrounds.

Culture Camp is an incredible opportunity to attend four days of music and dance workshops led by many of the favorite GrassRoots performers including instructors from Donna The Buffalo, Driftwood, The Horseflies, Preston Frank and His Zydeco Family Band, Keith Secola, Balfa Toujours, Los Texmaniacs, Big Mean Sound Machine, Jennie Lowe Stearns, The Blind Spots, Richie and Rosie, Bobby Henrie and The Goners, and many more!

Culture Camp Coordinator and co-founding member of Donna the Buffalo, Tara Nevins, says, “GrassRoots Culture Camp offers first hand learning experience with masters of traditional and contemporary art forms, including music, dance, visual arts, and culinary arts in a fun and positive setting, promoting community and the importance of tradition and culture in our society.”

The workshops, along with themed nightly dinners and dances, provide an opportunity to immerse oneself in an intimate learning experience and to enjoy a few extra days of fun before the festival begins. Workshops include fiddle, banjo, guitar, the art of guitar and cello, bass, mandolin, accordion, improvisation, singing, children’s sing song, country songs old and new, cajun songs, songwriting, father and son duo, Native Americana, the spirit of the native american drum, Moog synthesizers, Afrobeat drumset rhythms & concepts, bodhran, scrubboard, triangle, dance, acrylic painting, yoga, youth percussion, and youth square dance. Advanced musicians as well as beginners are welcome!

PREVIOUS CULTURE CAMP ATTENDEES SAY:

“What an amazing experience Culture Camp turned out to be! Rarely is there an opportunity to immerse yourself in music while learning how to make it. The nightly shows in the dance tent were fabulous! The dinner cuisine was superb! My favorite workshops were Songwriting and Duet Singing. I left Culture Camp feeling inspired and energized!” –Phyllis Atwell

“In all honesty, last year’s Culture Camp was a major life experience for me. I was able to work and jam with with professionals, such as Jeb Puryear. At my level of playing as an adult learner, I never thought that I would have had that opportunity. I received individualized instruction from the very talented Joey Arcuri of Driftwood. I don’t think I’ve put down my upright bass since. I look forward to Culture Camp to rejuvenate the inspiration and motivation for another whole year. Culture Camp is such a beautiful way to ease into the excitement of the music festival….the feeding of my soul through music, education, arts, culture, and friends that have become family.” –Ni Lu

“My Culture Camp participation was a combination of learning, experiencing, and interacting with people up close and feeling the joy of what they do and bring to GrassRoots. It’s truly rewarding!” –Jeffrey Schriber

Watch Tara Nevins (of Donna The Buffalo) talk about GrassRoots Culture Camp

WORKSHOPS WITH INSTRUCTORS FROM:
Donna The Buffalo
Driftwood
The Horseflies
Preston Frank and His Zydeco Family Band
Keith Secola
Balfa Toujours
Los Texmaniacs
Big Mean Sound Machine
Jennie Lowe Stearns
The Blind Spots
Richie and Rosie
Bobby Henrie and The Goners
Jones Benally
Laila Belle
The Grady Girls
plus many more…..

NIGHTLY DANCES (Open to the public)

Sunday July 16th – Bobby Henrie and The Goners (rarified rockabilly, swing and everything in between)

Monday July 17th – Balfa Toujours – (“Balfa Always”, carrying on the legacy and tradition of the Balfa Brothers. Cajun music at it’s best.)

Tuesday July 18th – Los Texmaniacs – (Grammy-winning Conjunto band, incorporating elements from rock & roll and jazz while still honoring the roots of Conjunto Tejano)

Wednesday July 19th – Preston Frank and His Zydeco Family Band – (From Soileau, Louisiana, the finest in Creole/Zydeco music)

TICKETS AND DETAILS

ALL INCLUSIVE 4-DAY ADMISSION – $125 – This ticket includes four days of workshops plus nightly dinners & dances. Youth (15 and under) $65

SINGLE DAY FULL ADMISSION – $40 – This ticket includes one day of workshops plus nightly dinners & dances.
DINNER & DANCE ONLY – ONE NIGHT – $30 – 6:30 PM each night

DANCE ONLY – ONE NIGHT – $15  – 8:30 PM each night

CAMPING OPTIONS ARE ALSO AVAILABLE FOR AN ADDITION FEE

LOCATION: Trumansburg Fairgrounds, Rt 96, Trumansburg, NY 14886. Info: (607) 387-5090

 

Listen to an interview with GrassRoots Culture Camp Coordinator Tara Nevins on WHCU radio  → http://whcuradio.com/morning-newswatch/grassroots-culture-camp/

You can find the event on Facebook: www.facebook.com/events/1766466600330369/

FOR COMPLETE GRASSROOTS CULTURE CAMP INFORMATION, THE SCHEDULE, TICKETS PRICES, AND FURTHER DETAILS, GO TO: www.grassrootsfest.org/culture-camp-1-1/

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Living the Festival Dream: One GrassRoots Festival Per Season…

Living the Festival Dream: One GrassRoots Festival Per Season
To every season, there is a GrassRoots Festival…

2013 GrassRoots Festival Dates:
Feb 21-24 –Virginia Key GrassRoots Festival of Music & Dance – Miami, FL
April 18-21 – Shakori Hills Spring GrassRoots Fest– Pittsboro, NC
July 18-21 – Finger Lakes GrassRoots Fest – Trumansburg, NY
October 10-13 – Shakori Hills Fall GrassRoots Fest – Pittsboro, NC

It begins…

About 22 years ago, Ithaca-based band Donna the Buffalo and some of their friends saw a void in their community.  AIDS was a new and deadly disease and people were uneducated about it and how to prevent it.  As artists do, they decided to use their art to spread the word and make a difference – they created a festival. In the summer of 1991, The Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival was held on the fairgrounds on the edge of the small town of Trumansburg, NY.  Folks danced, listened to great music, created and witnessed art, met up with old friends, found new ones, and shared ideas.  The festival was a hit, and the profits went to AIDSwork of Tompkins County to help spread the word about the terrible, yet preventable, disease.

Since then, the not-for-profit festival in NY has grown continuously and has given funding to socially and environmentally responsible organizations including: Doctors Without Borders,  Musicians For World Harmony, Ithaca Free Clinic, Ithaca Ballet, Hospicare of Tompkins County, Boy Scouts Of America, LACS Katrina Relief Group and more.  Not just another music festival, GrassRoots became synonymous with not only being the region’s premiere music event but a community that cares about each other and the world around them and are passionate about music and culture in a very human way.

The acts on the bill have not always been pop-darlings or the coolest “hit” of the year, they are artists with a conscience, who have something to give the audience that lasts longer than the moment in which songs are heard.  Featured genres include: World, Roots Rock, Americana, Bluegrass, Latin, Old-time, Zydeco, Cajun, Blues, Folk, Country, Hip Hop and Jazz.  World music heroes like Africa’s Hugh Massekela, Oliver Mtukudzi, Seun Kuti (accompanied by his father Fela’s band Egypt 80), and Tinariwen; Reggae pioneers like Burning Spear and Toots & The Maytals; Hip Hop social activists Arrested Development; Folk and Country greats Merle Haggard, Lucinda Williams, and Old Crow Medicine Show; Latin artists Maraca Y Otra Vision and Sierra Maestra, Native Americans Keith Secola and Deer Clan Singers; and others The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Ani DiFranco and Rickie Lee Jones all have graced the GrassRoots Festival stages. Artists that make a difference, that educate and feed the soul.

The journey continues…

In 2003 a group of organizers from the New York festival, including GrassRoots Festival Organization founder Jordan Puryear, decided that they had such a great thing going, they should share it with as many people as possible.  With a vision for a GrassRoots for every season the organization moved south to central North Carolina.  The region is well known for its music, from its history of Old-time, Bluegrass, and Folk music to a thriving indie college scene; here was a perfect atmosphere in which to create another GrassRoots Festival.  They discovered a 75-acre old farmstead outside of Chapel Hill and on Earth Day weekend of April 2003, the Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival of Music & Dance was born.  Four days of music, dance and art in a green, idyllic setting.

The Spring and Fall Shakori Hills GrassRoots festivals, from their inception, reached out and included local non-profit and advocacy groups and helped present their missions to audiences.  Shakori Hills also presents a safe and friendly place that is very welcoming to families.  Sara Waters, festival co-coordinator shares, “The kids’ area is outstanding, with activities from crafts to learning how to play instruments, kid-focused bands, and storytelling, to making masks and painting umbrellas for peace, there’s even a festival-wide game of capture the flag and a parade consisting of giant, ornate puppets and any number of percussion instruments.”

There are four stages, including two in large outdoor fields, a more intimate cabaret tent and a large, 10,000 square foot dance tent.  Some of the artists who have performed at Shakori Hills include: Carolina Chocolate Drops, The Avett Brothers, Bela Fleck & The Flecktones, Oliver Mtukudzi, Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, Sam Bush, Rusted Root, Nickel Creek, Richie Havens, Ralph Stanley, Squirrel Nut Zippers and Nnenna Freelon.

As with the New York festival, there is a Healing Arts area with Yoga, Tai-chi, massage and  movement workshops.  At Shakori Hills there is also a “Sustainability Fair” where area pioneers in Earth friendly technologies and practices come to share and present their ideas. “Attendees can camp out and stay for all four days or just come in for an afternoon.  Everyone finds something here that they are interested in. They may come for a favorite band and find they have a new love of  Zydeco dancing or an interest in gardening or biodiesel,” Waters recounts.

A new adventure…

With their newest motto (taken from a fortune cookie) at heart– “If at first you succeed, try something harder.” –the organizers packed up and moved south yet again.  Historic Virginia Key Beach Park in Miami, Florida is now the home to the third, and winter season, Virginia Key GrassRoots Festival of Music & Dance.  When asked about what was behind the creation of the southern-most GrassRoots Festival, Puryear says, “Well, it is a dream come true!  Creating four seasons of GrassRoots Festivals was an idea inspired by the turn of the century mark in 2000 and us wanting to do something really great.”

Like it’s big sisters, the Virginia Key GrassRoots Festival has adapted to the local culture, celebrating it and learning from it.  The festival organization has spent time not only planning a festival, but becoming familiar with the local community, finding out what the festival can bring to the table that might be missing or underestimated locally.  The GrassRoots festivals not only add to their surroundings, but they strive to make it so the event becomes a place for the local community to celebrate itself, unite in understanding as well as in fun.

The first Virginia Key GrassRoots Festival featured among others: Chaka Khan, Del McCoury, Arrested Development, Suenalo, Locos Por Juana, Keith Frank & His Soileau Zydeco Band, Jahfe and Donna The Buffalo.

Why this dream and what it means…

The GrassRoots festivals uphold their belief in education as much as fun, in sharing as much as taking a break from the everyday world.  Waters comments on the overall dream: “The idea is to have a wonderful experience and then take that out into the world, continue what you have learned and help others to learn it as well.”   Puryear speaks about what happens in the Dance Tent of all four festivals–how there, “the artists and the audience are on the same level, sharing in something very simple yet quite profound, the movement of the body and the communication music portrays without words.  The people, both artist and audience, sharing the music, breathing the same air, dancing on the same floor, kicking up some dust, become one.”

Written by Sara Waters.

2013 GrassRoots Festival Dates:
Feb 21-24 –Virginia Key GrassRoots Festival of Music & D ance – Miami, FL
April 18-21 – Shakori Hills Spring GrassRoots Fest– Pittsboro, NC
July 18-21 – Finger Lakes GrassRoots Fest – Trumansburg, NY
October 10-13 – Shakori Hills Fall GrassRoots Fest – Pittsboro, NC

GrassRoots festival websites:
http://www.grassrootsfest.org
http://www.shakorihillsgrassroots.org
http://www.virginiakeygrassroots.org

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Archive: Interview with Tara Nevins of Donna the Buffalo in the Roanoke Times

Tad Dickens did a GREAT interview with Tara Nevins to help promote their show coming up Thursday, Jan 20th at Awful Arthurs in Roanoke. Be sure to clikc the link to listen to a wonderful 30 minute podcast interview with Nevins. Here are some excerepts of the written piece:

Donna The Buffalo has loyal Herd of fans

Donna The Buffalo hits the stage Thursday at Awful Arthur’s at Towers in Roanoke.

By Tad Dickens | The Roanoke Times

Donna the Buffalo

When Donna The Buffalo takes the stage, folks from all over show up to see and hear.

The American roots music band, which plays Awful Arthur’s at Towers Shopping Center in Roanoke on Thursday, just wrapped up a run of shows through Florida. When Donna The Buffalo singer and multi-instrumentalist Tara Nevins looked out at the crowd during a Jan. 5 set in Jacksonville, she saw people she recognized from shows all over the country. She said the band’s merchandise guy counted fans from 13 states, in addition to all the Jacksonville-area fans who showed up.

“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,” said Nevins, who with guitarist/singer Jeb Puryear is the band’s creative core.

“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.”

Podcast With Tara Nevins of Donna The Buffalo

The Herd

Read the Herd conversation here.

New music

It’s been two and a half years since Donna The Buffalo released a record. That disc, “Silverlined,” was part of the band’s 20th anniversary celebration. The band played FloydFest just after the CD came out in July 2008.

Donna is preparing to record a new album in the next couple of months. It will be the band’s “greatest guests record,” Nevins said. The idea sprang from the band’s annual closing set at the festival it helped create, Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music & Dance, held in Trumansburg, N.Y. The band likes to bring up whatever musicians are still around by the time the festival is winding down.

“We’ve formed so many great relationships like that over the years, and we also have our musicians that we’ve always loved to play with or collaborate with but haven’t yet,” said Nevins, who declined to identify the musical guests.

Nevins has also finished recording her own new album at Levon Helm Studios, in Woodstock, N.Y. Larry Campbell, seen at FloydFest performing with Helm, is the producer. Helm played drums on two cuts, Nevins said. She said she had a “wonderful experience” working with both musicians.

“It was awesome just to get to hang out with [Helm] and get to know him a little,” she said. “He’s a fantastic person and a soulful, soulful musician.”

And the circle grows.

 

 

 

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Donna the Buffalo plays the Tralf & the Oneonta Theatre this weekend!

Donna the Buffalo has a great weekend in store! This Friday, Nov 19th they play the Tralf in Buffalo and then on Saturday they head over to the Oneonta Theatre on Saturday 11/20 for a show with Sim Redmond Band!

Here are a few excerpts from articles for the weekend:

Have You Herd? : Donna the Buffalo Stampedes Tralf

By Erin McNeil

http://www.buffalorising.com/2010/11/have-you-herd-donna-the-buffalo-stampedes-tralf.html

DtB photo by Jim Gevenus

Originating in Trumansburg, NY in 1989, Donna the Buffalo rove the Midwest and Eastern seaboard as one of the few touring roots bands.  The Herd, their self-proclaimed fan base, loyally trails the band as they market their rather eclectic styling.  Eclectic may be an understatement for this ensemble, as their sound is a hybrid of mountain music pervaded with Cajun/zydeco, folk-rock, country-rock, Reggae, and bluegrass.

…

Donna the Buffalo has not only been successful with their nine album releases, with their latest, Silverlined in 2008, rising to the number eight spot on the Americana Music Chart, but they have made great contributes to the music and arts world.  Donna the Buffalo is the founder and host band of the Finger Lakes Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance in Trumansburg, NY.  Due to the sensation of this event, the group helped create the bi-annual Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival in Silk Hope, NC.  Avengers in the grassroots genre, Donna the Buffalo also headlines at the Great Blue Heron Music Festival in Sherman, NY and every fall, are a contributing band to the Magnolia Festival in Live Oaks, FL.  The group also made an appearance in Dave Sale and Bud Selig’s documentary, “On the Bus”.  Their diverse music will also be featured in surrealist artist Yanni Osmond and his partner Spanky the Women Tamer’s upcoming cartoon, “Living Evil”…

Donna the Buffalo is true to their home-grown roots, however, they incorporate a modern zest.  Their barefoot-in-the-grass, feel good, poetic music filters through the heart and soul and thus expands the mind.  Nevins and Puryear’s vocal capabilities are true to the folk art genre, painting a beautiful, spiritual image in the mind.  Their musicality and brilliant use of both traditional and nontraditional instrumentation brings to life the roots of music with the roots of mankind and nature.  It has the warmth of that freedom of driving down an open country road, wind blowing through your hair and fingers, sun gracing your face, fresh air filling your lungs and the sight of nature untainted.  Thus it is much like the phenomenon of ‘loud silence’.

They stay true to themselves, while they continue to evolve in their art.  Their music defines the idea that past meets present, and in turn, contributes to the future with spiritual, deep thought entertainment.  They provide amusement that manages to bring attention to and engage all your senses in response to their meaningful reflections to life and love.

Read the full post here.

and here is another one posted in Art Voice.

Featured Events: See You There! Donna the Buffalo

by Alan Victor

Jeb Puryear and Tara Nevins. Photo by John D Kurc

Donna the Buffalo is not from the city of Buffalo, but the fan base here is so large you’d think they were. Maybe it’s the power of suggestion stemming from the name, but it’s more likely due to Western New York’s penchant for this kind of music—the socially conscious, grassroots jam band stuff that has made groups like .moe, Phish, and Donna so well-loved…

That was 20 or so years ago, and since then they’ve gathered a devoted following known as “the Herd.” Founding members of the Finger Lakes Grassroots Music Festival, Donna the Buffalo is also a co-headliner at the great Blue Heron every year as well as at many other weekend festivals through the midwest and all along the east coast…

Read more: http://artvoice.com/issues/v9n46/syt#ixzz15f4EuPoM

 

 

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