Donna the Buffalo's feel-good, groove-oriented, danceable and often socially conscious music all began over twenty years ago with roots in old time fiddle music that evolved into a soulful electric Americana mix infused with elements of cajun/ zydeco, rock, folk, reggae, and country. Donna the Buffalo is known for touring the country remaining fiercely independent as one of the industry's most diverse roots-music bands and has "earned a reputation as one of the most respected, eclectic and hardest-working acts today," praises Encore.
"Donna the Buffalo is in the enviable position of being a homegrown entity, a group that finds itself outside the coloring lines of the accepted formula, a formula that is now in the past tense...People doing what they love, and better, sharing that passion to the benefit of the public, is the strongest business formula ever written. Donna the Buffalo is living proof of that. Lucky for them. Lucky for us. Everybody wins!," states Beat Magazine. Edd Hurt with the Nashville Scene writes, "Folkies with a superior sense of rhythm are rare enough, but folkies with a good beat and a healthy disrespect for eclectic clichés are a national treasure....they've never sounded better...they make music that's beautiful but never prettified."
The dynamic songwriting tandem of vocalists Jeb Puryear and Tara Nevins have penned over 180 songs in their collaboration with DTB and have many more in the making. Although never writing a set list for live show, the Erie Times notes, "they stick to a pattern...usually alternating between Puryear's rhythmic, Dylan-influenced, guitar-centered songs and Nevins' breezy, melodic, accordion-driven gems like the folksy Tides of Time and infectious Locket and Key." As of late, Nevins and Puryear have also been known to perform as a duo on air and on select songs at live shows, which is always enjoyable to the fans to hear their favorite DtB songs in stripped down arrangements.
Donna the Buffalo has been working on a 10th album with Puryear on guitar and vocals; Nevins on fiddle, guitar, accordion, scrubboard and vocals; keyboardist Dave McCracken; bassist Kyle Spark; and drummer Mark Raudabaugh.
Donna the Buffalo has released nine albums and are affiliated with several others, including a Puryear's 2007 solo album Hopes and Dreams and a 2003 release, Wait Til Spring, with Jim Lauderdale. The band's 2008 release Silverlined, on Sugar Hill, rose to #8 on the Americana Music Chart. Nevins released Wood and Stone, produced by Larry Cambell in Levon Helm Studios in 2011 on Sugar Hill Records; it was her first solo album since Mule to Ride in 1999.
Donna the Buffalo's 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. Puryear declares, "The main thing I like to say about The Herd is that you don't have to do anything to be a member. You just have to like a song." In an interview with The Roanoke Times, Nevins conveys, "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...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." When asked in an interview with the Weekender in PA what new people should look forward to experiencing at a show, Nevins replied "a really friendly, comfortable crowd, and a real community-oriented, positive experience."
Over the years and through their travels, Donna the Buffalo as a band and its individual members have had the opportunity to play music with and/or record with musicians such as Jim Lauderdale, Preston and Keith Frank, Railroad Earth, Bela Fleck, John Paul Jones, Bill Kreutzmann, The Avett Bothers, Del McCoury, Tim O'Brien, Pete Wernick, Abigail Washburn, Mamadou Diabate, Los Lobo, Rusted Root, Claire Lynch, David Hidalgo, The Duhks and Amy Helm, just to name a few.
With over twenty years to celebrate, hundreds of gigs ahead of them, and an ever-evolving grassroots sound; it looks like Donna the Buffalo is riding a cloud that is truly Silver-lined.
"Born of the diversity found in the Philadelphia music scene in the early nineties, Rugby Road relentlessly toured the region, honing their skills while blending rock, soul, funk, and jazz into a sound all their own.
While the band wasn't designed as a "jam band", the improvisational element found in their sound quickly became noticed by the Wetlands scene.
Rugby Road was selected as the opening act for the likes of The Allman Brothers Band, Phish and Rusted Root. Rugby Road released 2 independent releases, "Times Already Happened" in 1997 and "Different Degrees" in 1999. "Times" showcases the bands improvisational freedom and captures the bands early catalog of original material that evolved along with their touring schedule. "Different Degrees" finds the band a bit more grown up and willing to stretch their songwriting and production capabilities into a more consistent studio record.
Rugby Road still gigs on occasion in Philadelphia and the members continue to produce and record new material for the hell of it."
