Formed toward the end of the 1980s, the upstate New York roots group Donna the Buffalo cultivated an intensely loyal audience, created and sustained a cherished annual music gathering, repeatedly crisscrossed the national festival and club routes without shedding their local character, and issued a broad, inviting catalog of recordings that drew from rock, jazz, country, zydeco, and folk. Though linked to the American jam-band circuit, the band cultivated that scene’s passionate supporters and tight-knit community while largely bypassing its hippie trappings, instead emphasizing concise songcraft and an energetic folk-rooted sound. Beyond their own well-regarded albums such as 1996’s The Ones You Love, 2008’s Silverlined, and 2018’s Dance in the Street, the group has shared bills with Los Lobos, Railroad Earth, and Little Feat, and cut a record alongside Jim Lauderdale.
Donna the Buffalo came together in 1989 in the Finger Lakes community of Trumansburg, New York, built around the songwriting partnership of Tara Nevins and Jeb Puryear. The two multi-instrumentalists had first crossed paths at an old-time fiddle gathering and developed a friendship in the years that followed. Although membership has changed considerably over the decades, the original roster—Nevins on fiddle, accordion, and vocals; Puryear on guitar and vocals; his brother Jordan Puryear on bass; Jim Miller on guitar and vocals; Richie Stearns on keyboards and vocals; Jennie Stearns on guitar and vocals; and Shane Lamphier on drums and vocals—recorded both the cassette-only 1989 debut known informally as The White Tape and its 1991 successor, the similarly untitled Red Tape. During this era the initial configuration began to evolve, with Richie Stearns stepping away to concentrate on the Horse Flies (while making occasional guest appearances) and Joe Thrift entering in time for the 1993 release still referred to as the Purple CD. By then the band had gained a firm foothold across upstate New York and Pennsylvania, launching the Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance, helping inaugurate the Great Blue Heron Music Festival, and attracting a devoted core following known as the Herd. Members also performed intermittently under the names Zydeco Experiment and Buffalo Zydeco. Lamphier exited in 1994, and Jordan Puryear left shortly after the 1996 appearance of The Ones You Love; they were succeeded by Tom Gilbert on drums and Jed Greenberg on bass, both of whom stayed through the remainder of the decade and appeared on 1998’s Rockin’ in the Weary Land and 2000’s Positive Friction.
The year 2000 also marked the arrival of keyboardist Kathy Ziegler, who, aside from contributing to 2001’s Live from the American Ballroom (which included a returning Richie Stearns), served as a regular member for the following eight years. Over their career Donna the Buffalo performed alongside an array of stylistically varied artists including Béla Fleck, Zac Brown, Mamadou Diabate, John Paul Jones, and the Avett Brothers. In 2003 they collaborated with roots and country performer Jim Lauderdale on the joint album Wait Til Spring, then issued their own 2005 release, Life’s a Ride. Between those projects Greenberg was replaced on bass by Bill Reynolds, and founding guitarist Jim Miller—whose country leanings had shaped much of the band’s earlier material—departed, shifting the focus squarely onto Nevins and Puryear’s songwriting and lead vocals. Personnel continued to rotate in subsequent years, with the bass position passing through several players before settling on Jay Sanders in 2007. Ziegler’s departure from keyboards opened the way for David McCracken, who held the role for the next ten years. Another album, Silverlined, arrived in 2008 as the band kept up its consistent touring and festival schedule. In 2009 Nevins toured as a member of Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann’s project BK3 and issued her second solo effort, Wood and Stone, in 2011.
Entering the new decade, the lineup once again realigned around the central pair of Nevins and Puryear, joined by keyboardist McCracken and a fresh rhythm section of bassist Kyle Spark and drummer Mark Raudabaugh. This configuration returned to the studio for 2013’s Tonight, Tomorrow and Yesterday and maintained an active touring and festival calendar. For their following project the band traveled to Texas’ Sonic Ranch Studio to work with producer and engineer Rob Fraboni, whose past credits include Bob Dylan, the Band, and the Rolling Stones. Captured live to analog tape, the resulting sessions were released as Dance in the Street in 2018.
