Donna the Buffalo News & Rumors

August 2005 Winding Up The Weekend In Woodstock Donna the Buffalo capped off a three-day-weekend run of shows with a Sunday afternoon set in Woodstock, NY. It rained on and off but fortunately the Woodstock Playhouse has a ceiling over both the stage and the audience--just don't lean against the walls, because there aren't any. Check out my photos of Donna's performance in Woodstock on 8/28/05. At this show, the band played the new Tara song, which she said she hasn't named yet but Donnabase.com is calling Bad Memories, and one of the two new Jeb songs, which I didn't ask him about. (posted 8/29/05) Donna Unveils Four New Songs, Jeb Breaks Out The Pedal Steel Apparently, a relentless touring schedule hasn't prevented Donna the Buffalo from preparing new material, as the band has unveiled four new songs--two from Tara and two from Jeb--in the past week. First came an uptempo Tara song that Donnabase.com is tentatively calling Bad Memories that most likely debuted on 8/21 in Erie, PA, though the band may have played it in Morgantown, WV the previous night. An unofficial version of the lyrics to this song was posted to the Herd email list. Then on 8/26 in Endicott, NY the band played this song again, a second new Tara tune, and two new songs from Jeb, including one that he played solo as the first of a two-song encore. In Endicott Jeb also played pedal steel (on Do My Thing, Riddle of the Universe, and an untitled zydeco song) for the first time since 11/20/04. I'll post more details on the new songs soon, especially if I get to hear any of them at the Woodstock show tomorrow :> (posted 8/27/05)

Triumphant Return To Erie, PA The Erie, PA police may have some strange ideas about how to end a music festival, but that didn't prevent Donna the Buffalo from entertaining the people of this fine city on Sunday, 8/21. Tara Nevins even debuted a new song during this performance; details (including a title) will be forthcoming. In the meantime, enjoy Michelle Chylinski's two dozen outstanding photos of Donna's set at the Celebrate Erie! fest in Erie, PA on 8/21. Thanks a million, Michelle! (posted 8/23/05)

Flashback: Donna And Del, Dec. '04 In early December 2004, Donna the Buffalo played three very special shows during which they shared the bill with the legendary Del McCoury Band. These performances took place in New York, NY on 12/2, Washington, DC on 12/4, and Philadelphia, PA on 12/5. The gigs featured each band playing its own set as well as the two joining forces for a few songs each night. My attempts to photograph the NYC show were unsuccessful, but luckily John Yust and Warren "Cat" Catlett both captured the Donna'n'Del action from the 9:30 Club in DC on 12/4. John's got a half-dozen great shots of Donna and Del's band playing together, plus a handful of just Donna's set. Warren captured a few great images of the two bands united at that same show, plus a cool shot of Donna playing while Del and some of his band watch from the balcony. Nice work, guys! (posted 8/21/05)

Jeb Interview In Rochester Newspaper In an interview with the Rochester (NY) Democrat and Chronicle, Jeb Puryear shares his views on the war in Iraq, the Christian right, and cartoons. You can read it at www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050818/ENT0501/508180321/1077/ENT05. On Friday, 8/19, Donna the Buffalo will play a free show at 7 p.m. at the Rochester Public Market, 280 N Union St., Rochester, NY. (posted 8/18/05)

Buffalo Zydeco To Play T-burg Fair On 8/25 Donna the Buffalo's zydeco alter ego, Buffalo Zydeco (used to be known as Zydeco Experiment) will play at the Trumansburg Fair in the band's hometown, Trumansburg, NY on Thursday, 8/25. The 7:30 p.m. show, which will also include The Wilders and the Red Stick Ramblers, costs $10 and will take place at the Fairgounds, the same site as the GrassRoots Festival. For more info about the Fair, visit http://hometown.aol.com/ trumansburgfair/myhomepage/ business.html. (posted 8/16/05)

Donna's Bonnaroo Set Now For Sale Donna the Buffalo's 6/12 performance at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, TN is now available for purchase from Live Bonnaroo (www.livebonnaroo.com). The two-disc set can be downloaded as MP3 (for $9.95) or FLAC (for $12.95) and comes with printable CD art. (posted 8/16/05)

More GrassRoots Goodies Brendon Layton shoots his photos of Donna the Buffalo on film. While the film vs. digital debate is best left to professional photographers, check out Brendon's shots of the band's 7/23/05 show at GrassRoots in Trumansburg, NY to see if you notice the difference. If you've got a high bandwidth connection, you'll definitely want to click on the thumbnails for some full-screen, supersized fun. Thanks, Brendon! (posted 8/14/05)

Finally Some Photos From Thur. Groots There are few things in this world that you can really count on, but one of them is that if Donna the Buffalo is playing and John Yust is there, he'll be taking photos. Literally hundreds of people shot photos of Donna the Buffalo's performances at the Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival in Trumansburg, NY, but John is one of the very few who captured images of the band's opening night gig on Thursday, 7/21. In just a few shots, John captured each member of the band doing what he or she loves the most. Thanks, John, and it was nice to finally meet you. (posted 8/10/05) Soon To Hit The Road Again After enjoying a brief break, Donna the Buffalo will finish off the last two weekends of August with a half dozen shows, most of which wil take place in New York state. There will be a free show in Rochester on Friday, 8/19, followed by Morgantown, WV on Saturday, 8/20 and Erie, PA on Sunday, 8/21. The next weekend the band will be in Endicott, NY on Friday, 8/26, then up to the Finger Lakes Performing Arts Center in Canandaigua, NY, to open for ZZ Top (!?!) on Saturday 8/27, and returning to the lovely Woodstock Playhouse in Woodstock, NY on Sunday, 8/28. (posted 8/10/05)

Donna's A Floyd Fest Favorite Warren "Cat" Catlett is a huge Donna the Buffalo fan, and often plays the band's music on his Internet radio station, WCAT. Fortunately for DonnaFans.com, he was at Floyd Festival for Donna's only set of that event. Check out his half-dozen photos of Donna the Buffalo's set on 7/30/05 in Floyd, VA. Jim Lauderdale joined the band for several songs, mostly off of Wait Til Spring, in the middle of the set, and then came back out for the encore. Thanks for the images, Warren! (posted 8/7/05)

Donna At Camp Creek Donna the Buffalo's last gig before a two-week break was at Max Creek's annual festival, Camp Creek. Liz O'Brien shares a dozen of her photos of the band at Camp Creek in Mariaville, NY on 7/31/05. Liz says that the band played a short but sweet set under threatening skies, and then promptly packed up and split right after a deluge. Thanks for the photos Liz! (posted 8/4/05) Just Added: Review Of 7/23/05 Sometimes the band plays well but the magic just doesn't happen for me personally. Such was the case for me at Donna's Saturday night performance at the Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival, where a huge crowd and a bunch of songs repeated from Donna's Thursday night set brought me down. Then Mamadou Diabate joined the band on kora for Blue Sky, and the night took a tremendous turn for the better. Check out my review of Donna's 7/23/05 set at GrassRoots to see how it unfolded, and if you were there and experienced it differently, by all means let me know: fans@donnafans.com. (posted 8/3/05)

Never Too Early To Think About Shakori If you're planning on attending the Fall Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival in Silk Hope, NC on 10/6/05 - 10/9/05, it pays to plan ahead--literally. Until 8/15, earlybird four-day tickets are onsale for $55 for adults and $25 for those ages 13 - 15 (kids 12 and under are free). At the gate, these tickets will cost $75 and $35, respectively. While the lineup hasn't yet been finalized, in addition to multiple performances by Donna the Buffalo, the Fest will also feature country star John Anderson, Tift Merritt, the Duhks, the Bio Ritmo Salsa Machine, and many others. You can order tickets and find more info at the official Fall Shakori site, www.shakorihills.org. To see what Shakori Hills is like, check out Terry Killebrew's photos from Fall Shakori 2004, or Terry's and John Yust's photos of the 2005 Spring Shakori Fest. (posted 8/2/05)

Just Added: Bubba George Photos Long before there was Donna the Buffalo, a teenage Jeb Puryear played fiddle in Bubba George Stringband with Richie Stearns (banjo), Jordan Puryear (acoustic guitar), and Shane Lamphier (mandolin). One of the GrassRoots Festival's most beloved traditions is that Bubba George kicks off the party on Thursday afternoon with the first performance of the event, and then appears again later in the Fest. Fortunately, Greg Cotterill was in the Dance Tent to snap a few photos of Bubba George's GrassRoots set on Sunday afternoon, 7/24/05. You can learn more about Bubba George and even pick up a live CD of the band playing at GrassRoots a few years ago from Funkyside.com at http://www.funkyside.com/bubbageorge. (posted 8/1/05)

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