About DonnaFans.com
In 2003, I offered to the Herd list a B&P of a show Steve Andrews had given me. One of those who responded was Brian Reid, who along with his blank discs sent me a photocopy of a photo he'd taken of Donna the Buffalo at the Clearwater Hudson River Revival from 6/16/02. I was blown away not just because he had unknowningly sent me a photo from my first Donna show, but also because it was an extremely high-quality image.
In June 2004, I did another B&P for Brian (Jeb, Jim, Tara, Jed, and Richie Stearns doing a set of Old Time music, 9/30/01 Harvest Fest, Fairburn, GA), and he sent me more photocopies of his photos. They were from the show at South Street Seaport, NY, NY 7/11/03--another show I was at--and again they were excellent.
In August, I finally met Brian at DtB's return to South Street Seaport. Turns out we had seen each other at shows before but didn't know one another. Brain was again shooting photos, and this time he emailed me a few electronic images from this show. I emailed to thank him, and wrote "You should put together a web site to show these off--I bet people would enjoy them."
A few months later, it was my wedding anniversary, and my wife asked me what I'd like as a gift. I had seen Rand and Carol's most excellent site haveyouherd.com and thought it would be cool to build a little Donna site of my own, so asked her to buy me a domain name and hosting. I planned to create a very simple, text-based site consisting of reviews I'd write of all of the Donna shows I've seen. I picked Ipower as a host based on the recommendation of a friend of a friend, and so far have been happy with their service.
I emailed Brain to ask him if he'd like to send me a few images to use for the site, which I eventually decided to call DonnaFans.com (herd.com was taken--check it out). When the CD Brian put together arrived a few days later with dozens of his best images, I realized this could be a halfway decent little site after all.
Since then, I've read the Herd email list daily, and whenever someone posted a link to photos of a DtB show, I email the photographer and ask for permission to host a few of their images on DonnaFans.com. I've asked almost 70 people so far, and without exception, the answer has always been "Yes." Some fans have given me blanket permission to use any of their photos at any time. I don't want to leave anyone out, but I am especially grateful for the genorosity of John Yust, Linda Dicus, Terry Killebrew, Karen Landau, Bob Bunce, Warren Catlett, Michelle Chylinski, Greg Cotterill, Jessica Little, Paul Livingstone, Gene Martin, Phil Ross, and Kimmy Tiedemann. Special mention to John Miklasz, who provided me with the oldest photos of DtB on the site, which are from 1993, 1996, and 1997.
So thanks to all of you who've contributed photos so far, and to Brian Reid, without whom this site wouldn't have gotten off the ground, and to my wife. Thanks also to all of the people who visit the site regularly, the generous tapers and traders who've hooked me up with shows, and of course Donna the Buffalo for making the music that makes my day.
Peace,
Jeff
1/4/09
fans@donnafans.com
