Donna the Buffalo

[TC Chris]

Listening to a 2001 recording by Donna the Buffalo, Live from the American Ballroom. It's a 2-CD set my brother gave me long ago. He's my guide to popular music. And it's lively listening. They've even got an accordion. Most of my listening is to my classical stuff but something reminded me of this, and when the 10 p.m. "new age" music (I should repunctuate that: new age "music") came on, I popped the first CD on the machine and off we went.

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

I'd never heard of Donna the Buffalo. I'll have to say that I'm impressed. She might be considered country on "I Love My Tribe". She reminds me a little of Elini Mandell.

[TC Chris]

It's an interesting name. They were actually going to call themselves "Dawn of the Buffalo" but somebody booking them mis-heard it as "Donna the Buffalo" and they liked it.

Chris Campbell

[Firedome]

So funny to see this on here!! They're a well known local roots-rock band, based in Trumansburg NY nr Cayuga Lake about an hour from me, just N of Ithaca. Jeb Puryear (he always wears that fez-looking hat) is the force behind them and main song writer. They started, and appear most years, at the "Grassroots Festival" at the fairgrounds in T-burg, which is quite an annual "happening", some very well known folks have been there, Bela Fleck etc. My son's best friend is from T-burg (both parents Profs at Cornell) and my son's been there with his friends most years of the last 10, at least until covid struck . DTB has appeared several times on our local PBS WSKG show "Expressions", always liked them, and they're supposedly good people. One of my favorites songs by them is "Positive Friction":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=kJdAIWyqWZM

[TC Chris]

The audio is a lot better on the CD....

Chris Campbell

[Firedome]

No doubt, every YouTube of it I looked at sucked, either in audio, video, or usually both. Their fan base is like Phish's (a VT band you may have heard of) or the Dead's, they like to record all the performances, typically with lousy results, and archive/compare/debate them. No video here but the sound is considerably better:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HjjoCkEcD8

Another one I like a lot, much better audio/video this time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waUK95sev3c

BTW the female singer/washboard player is Tara Nevins, there's no Donna!

[TC Chris]

No doubt, every YouTube of it I looked at sucked, either in audio, video, or usually both. Their fan base is like Phish's (a VT band you may have heard of) or the Dead's,

I was going to suggest the same comparisons.Kinda like the Grateful Dead without the drug-induced hypnosis. And my brother who set he CD long ago is in Burlington, where Phish are a big deal.

Chris Campbell

[Firedome]

Although none of them were native Vermonters, in VT for UVM then Goddard College, Phish were and are a big deal in VT, starting out in Nectar's bar/venue downtown. We used to live in Charlotte where Jon Fishman lived at the time. One time when our youngest son was working part-time in a computer repair shop in Shelburne Shopping Center during his 1st yr of college, Jon waked in with a 'puter needing repair under his arm. My son said he was a very unassuming and friendly smaller guy driving a Subie Outback. Trey lived in Westford at that time where our other son lived (son now lives in Jericho). Jon moved to a Maine farm last I knew, Trey still has his big barn studio in Westford but lives in NYC, and Mike Gordon & Page McConnell still live in/around Burlington last I knew. Had several of their CDs in the '90s but daughter "borrowed" them and I never saw 'em again. They're all reported to be nice people, when Trey got stopped in Whitehall NY just across the lake for drug possession in '06, he actually thanked the cop. Felony conviction, went to jail/rehab for a yr and a half, but he's Ok now it seems.