Donna the Buffalo

Donna the Buffalo
At the Festival International 2010 in Lafayette, Louisiana
Background information
Also known as	Dawn of the Buffalo
Origin	New York, USA
Genres	zydeco, folk rock, country rock, reggae, bluegrass
Years active	1989–present
Associated acts	BK3, Jim Lauderdale
Website	donnathebuffalo.com
Members
Tara Nevins Jeb Puryear Mark Raudabaugh David McCracken Kyle Spark
Past members
Joe Thrift Richie Stearns Jennie Stearns Kathy Ziegler Tom Gilbert Shane Lamphier Jimmy Triplett Jim Miller Jordon Puryear Jed Greenberg Bill Reynolds Jay Sanders Vic Stafford

Donna the Buffalo is a band from Trumansburg, New York. They play both originals (primarily written by Jeb Puryear and Tara Nevins) and covers.

The band plays primarily in the Midwest and on the East Coast of the United States. The followers of the group are called The Herd. The name was suggested by a musician friend of the band; they liked it, and over twenty years later they are still "Donna the Buffalo".

The story is often told^{[by whom?]} that the band's name had its origins in their first live performance, when an inebriated M.C. misheard their newly-chosen name, "Dawn of the Buffalo", and introduced them instead as "Donna the Buffalo". According to the story the name stuck. This story, despite its legend on The Herd's mailing list, is not only false, but had its origins as a prank on the members of that list and members of the media.^{[citation needed]}

Donna the Buffalo is one of the founding and host band of the annual Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance along with the Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival and headliners at The Great Blue Heron Music Festival in Sherman, New York. Donna the Buffalo was featured in On The Bus, a documentary co-directed by Dave Sale and Bud Selig.

Donna the Buffalo has performed and/or recorded with a variety of musicians including Jim Lauderdale, father and son Zydeco masters Preston and Keith Frank, Bela Fleck, Mamadou Diabate, Claire Lynch, David Hidalgo, The Duhks and Amy Helm, to name a few. In 2009, Tara Nevins toured with former Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann's band BK3.

Surrealist artist Yanni Osmond and his partner Spanky the Woman Tamer licensed some of Donna the Buffalo's music for their upcoming cartoon Living Evil.

Members

• Tara Nevins - vocals, acoustic guitar, fiddle, accordion, washboard, occasional backup vocals
• Jeb Puryear - electric guitar, occasional pedal steel, rare backup vocals, vocals
• Mark Raudabaugh - drums
• David McCracken - electric keyboard, organ
• Kyle Spark - electric bass

Tara Nevins

Jeb Puryear

Songwriting duties are generally split between Nevins and Puryear. Past members have included keyboardists Joe Thrift, Richie Stearns and Kathy Ziegler, drummers Tom Gilbert, Shane Lamphier and Jimmy Triplett, as well as guitarist Jim Miller. Jeb's brother, Jordon Puryear, played bass for the group for a while, as did Jed Greenberg. As of July 5, 2007 Jay Sanders replaced Bill Reynolds on bass, followed in Jan 2010 by Kyle Spark.

Discography

• The White Tape"(1989)
• The Red Tape"(1991)
• Donna the Buffalo (a.k.a. "The Purple One") (1993)
• The Ones You Love (1996)
• Rockin' In the Weary Land (1998)
• Positive Friction (2000)
• Live From the American Ballroom (2001)
• Life's A Ride (2005)
• Silverlined (2008)

External links

• Official website