Followers of Donna the Buffalo will get their jones during a Saturday show in Utica
The Grateful Dead had (still has) Deadheads. Phish has Phishheads. But the fans of Central New York-bred roots band Donna the Buffalo (DTB) got a little more creative. They’ve got the Herd.
The group, which has toured extensively since 1989, started the summertime Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance in Trumansburg in 1990. The fest has since branched out to other locations, one in Shakori Hills, N.C., which hosts spring and fall editions, and this year’s maiden winter blowout at Virginia Key, just outside of Miami, which runs Feb. 9 through 12.
Guitarist/vocalist Jeb Puryear and songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Tara Nevins, the only remaining DTB original members, took turns giving phone interviews from Nashville during a break in a 10-date southerly run that had them bopping around Alabama, Tennessee and North Carolina. When the band, also featuring Dave McCracken on keys, Mark Raudabaugh on drums and bassist Kyle Spark, heads northward this week, they’ll hit Buffalo (natch) on Friday, Feb. 3, and on Saturday, Feb. 5, 8 p.m., they’ll play at Utica’s Uptown Theater, 2014 Genesee St. Tickets are $20 in advance (visit donnathebuffalo.com/eventbrite.com) and $25 at the door. Call 738-0377 for details.
“Down in North Carolina people are very sing-songy when they talk,” Puryear says, “and New York has a certain grittiness that I really like. There’s a very high energy about it. It’s hard to really quantify, but every crowd has a certain feeling. The GrassRoots crowd, the upstate crowd, definitely has a beautiful thing to it.”
Although Puryear hails from our neck of the woods, he has a slight Southern drawl, most likely from his upbringing (both parents were from Nashville) as well as the frequent time the band spends below the Mason-Dixon Line. When he speaks, it’s slow and deliberate, mild yet inviting. He carries the same deportment with him on stage, as he spews out electric guitar licks, but still maintains a gentle demeanor.
Nevins, his songwriting counterpart, offers a stark contrast: straight to the point, sharp and direct, like her standout musical compositions. Although the duo supplies all of the writing for the band, they do so separately, with each singing their own songs, which offers an interesting dynamic during their shows. One minute Puryear will start up a bouncing tune of questioning lyrics while the next Nevins will dive into a swinging, accordion-centered tune, her distinct vocals defining the sound.
“Growing up listening to Bob Dylan and Bob Marley and The Beatles, it’s a tradition to express stuff that you care about in a song,” Puryear says. “There’s also the strength that comes from music and gives you the feeling like you can change those things and make some progress, and then express some of the particulars about what you’d like to change.”
Nevins seems less calculated in her song creation: “I sit down with a guitar and sometimes I come up with melodies, sometimes I come up with ideas for lyrics. I could be walking down the street and come up with an idea for a song. I could be out exercising, lying in bed at night, on a stage. It just sorta happens when it happens.”
After more than two decades of performing side by side, “We’ve gotten to know each other pretty well at this point,” Nevins says with a laugh. “Playing together is kinda like riding a bicycle: Just get on it and you go. We can read each other pretty well.”
Puryear adds, “You could write a book on how much influence our musical deal has had. It’s just fantastic to be able to play music with someone and get to know them that well and have it be so interesting and vibrant and still have an active chemistry years down the road. Can’t say enough about it.”
Nevins and Puryear also share a similar passion for the festival that Donna the Buffalo started together more than 20 years ago, initially as a concert to benefit the local organization AIDSwork. The Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival has hosted acts including Merle Haggard, Rusted Root, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Los Lobos, The Avett Brothers and the Old Crow Medicine Show.
“One of the advantages of not really knowing what you’re doing is that you’re willing to do it,” Puryear laughs. “Just gotta go for it. GrassRoots is really just a facility for people to input their good energies. The whole thing’s not-for-profit. We get tons of volunteers and people get excited about it. The one in North Carolina, the whole community builds around that. We’re hoping that the same thing happens in Florida.”
For Puryear, the festival has also become something of a family affair. His brother Jordan, a former DTB bassist, took the initiative to find the new locations for the fest, while Puryear’s niece Rosa helps to run the Finger Lakes edition.
With all the touring, gigs at GrassRoots hoedowns, and playing at other bashes such as Merlefest, All Good and Floyd Fest, Nevins even managed to squeeze in a solo record, Wood and Stone (SugarHill), released last May. The band’s plans for their 10th album are also in the works.
But the hectic schedule doesn’t make for jaded music and certainly not a jaded Herd. “The deeper root of the whole {Herd} thing is that it’s something that modern society sort of lacks in the way of togetherness and community,” Puryear says. “And music can be a focal point of that excitement and togetherness. There’s something to do with the lyrics and the world view and the band’s sense of excitement about living. It’s something people identify with and enjoy and they’re an integral part of.”
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