Donna the Buffalo's eclectic and often socially conscious music has it's base in traditional mountain music and is infused with elements of Cajun/ zydeco, rock, folk, reggae, and country. The group’s core are vocalists Tara Nevins, who plays fiddle, guitar, accordion, and scrubboard, and guitarist Jeb Puryear. Keyboardist Dave McCracken, bassist Jay Sanders, and drummer Vic Stafford complete the ensemble.
Donna the Buffalo represents one of the most respected brands in the world of touring roots acts. For 21 years DTB has performed feel good, infectious music that often moves listeners physically and spiritually. In the words of a longtime fan, "Their songs are well known to contain lyrics offering poetry and sage commentary on the attractions and struggles with love and politics in this life. Their magnetic musical mix has often been described as dance music and for sure there is everything from foot tapping to get up and feel ecstatic moving in their sound, but there is also some deeply satisfying solace in what DTB has to say and how they say it. The dynamic songwriting tandem of Jeb Puryear and Tara Nevins have penned over 140 songs in their collaboration with DTB."
Their fervent fan base, self named The Herd, follows the band with zeal and has created a unique and supportive community online and at DTB shows across the nation. As an extension of this community and the band's own dedication to live roots music, Donna started, and are still the driving force behind, the Finger Lakes Grass Roots Festival of Music and Dance in Trumansburg, NY. 2010 marks the festivals 20th year. Stemming from it's success, a second Grass Roots Festival was started in Silk Hope North Carolina in 2002, the now bi-annual Shakori Hills Grass Roots Festival.
Over the years Donna the Buffalo has had the opportunity to collaborate and/or record with musicians such as Jim Lauderdale, Preston and Keith Frank, Bela Fleck, Mamadou Diabate, Claire Lynch, David Hidalgo, The Duhks, Amy Helm, just to name a few. This past year, Nevins also toured with former Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann's band BK3.
The band's 2008 release SILVERLINED, on Sugar Hill Records, rose to #8 on the Americana Music Chart. With a twentyone year tenure to celebrate, hundreds of gigs ahead of them, and an ever-evolving grass-roots sound; it looks like Donna the Buffalo is riding a cloud that is truly SILVERLINED.
Jeb Puryear - Guitar & Vocals
Old-time music was abnormally popular in Ithaca when Jeb was growing up so he was convinced if he learned to play the fiddle well enough, he'd be a rock star for sure...The string band he formed with his mates, Bubba George, was indeed worthy of the stature, but they were a bit ahead of their time...so he grabbed an electric guitar and kept on rockin'. He'll beat you at scrabble, chess, bocce, buray, and ping pong....and we hear a solo record may be in the works as well.
Tara Nevins - Accordion, Fiddle, Guitar, Scrubboard & Vocals
To begin to understand Tara's passion for music, one must first look to the Old-time musical community where Tara has spent over 20 years playing the fiddle. We did the research once and headed on down to the Mt Airy fiddlers' convention where in awe we watched her play 27 hours of fiddle tunes in 3 days time as she casually caught up with some old friends. But these days her love of Zydeco is equally as influential. While evident in her accordian playing, she is also currently expressing her love of Louisiana culture by producing a documentary on the late Carlton Frank. Beyond her time with DTB, Tara spent almost 10 years playing with the all-female Cajun/Old-time band, The Heartbeats, and plans to continue releasing solo records for Sugar Hill.
Dave McCracken - KeyboardsDavid’s father put a drum set in his room when he was 3 years old. He grew up meandering around his father’s music store in North Carolina bouncing from instrument to instrument. Prior to playing vintage keyboards with Donna the Buffalo, David toured extensively with CJ Chenier & the Red Hot Louisiana band and performed with Cyril Lance and Buddy Guy. "Donna the Buffalo's music really reaches out to a lot of people," he says. "...People really seem to wrap themselves into the message and the music transcends age and sex. You look out on the dance floor and you'll see three generations of people responding. It's a celebration of life."
Jay Sanders - Bass
Originally from Nashville, Jay Sanders has always been drawn to the organic music of the Appalachian Mountains. He has been an active member of the Western North Carolina music scene for over 15 years. He was the founding bass player for the Snake Oil Medicine Show and spent over 10 years touring with Acoustic Syndicate, including 8 award-winning recordings.
When not on the road with Donna, Jay continues to play with Acoustic Syndicate as well as his improvisational jazz group, The E.Normus Trio.
Vic Stafford - DrumsAs a young child, Vic's musical path began with a pure and simple love to bang on pots and pans. When his loving parents realized this "phase" was not at a pass, they granted him a 'Muppets' drum set before he settled down with a more respectable, second hand Ludwig kit. In his early years of schooling, Vic studied with local Asheville instructor Byron Hedgepeth, and later obtained his B.A. degree in music performance from Berklee. More importantly than the degree, was the personal influence of drumming instructors Jamey Haddad, Casey Schurell, Allan Dawson, and Jeff Sipe. After leaving Boston, Vic moved to Asheville, NC, and joined his friends in the band, The Goodies, while later moving to Atlanta to join the band, Blueground Undergrass. In 2002, Vic teamed up with friends, Chuck Lichtenberger and Stephanie Morgan in Asheville's acclaimed indie-pop band, Stephanies Id; and in 2004, he pursued his engineering skills as he teamed up with James Salter and Chris Skogen to open Berkeley Park Studios in the late Ricky Kellers Studio. After the studio closed in 2005 and he began producing/engineering independently, out of a variety of studios in the southeast, and now has a private studio in Atlanta, GA. It was also in 2005, that a new incarnation of musical collaboration was born, Super VGA. Super VGA is a trio comprised of Ryan Wardell, Jeff Waldron and Vic, each of whom live in 3 different cities. The three members collaborate digitally, via the internet, each writing and recording, emailing files back and forth, until song completion. In 2008 the band released it's first full lenth album, Modern Medicine. When Vic is not on the road with Donna The Buffalo, he continues to engineer/produce and/or play with the following acts: William F. Gibbs, Stephanie's Id, and Super VGA.
Info via ticketbiscuit.com/rhythm-brews. Photo via myspace.com/donnathebuffalo.
