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Donna the Buffalo release new album  

The long-anticiplated release of Donna the Buffalo’s 10th album includes plenty for fans to celebrate.


Bill Davis


Donna the Buffalo

John D. Kurc


Donna the Buffalo

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Donna the Buffalo
  • When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
  • Where: Kirk Avenue Music Hall, Roanoke
  • How much: $25
  • Contact: kirkavenuemusic.com
  • Black Dog Music and BBQ Festival With Donna The Buffalo, Big Daddy Love
  • When: Sept. 14 Where: Blue Ridge Parkway Milepost 171.5, Floyd
  • How much: $25 advance; $30 gate; $20 to designated drivers and ages 13-20; free to 12 and younger accompanied by paying adult
  • Contact: 593-2865, thedogs.com, donnathebuffalo.com, bigdaddylove.com
by
Tad Dickens | 777-6474

Thursday, September 5, 2013


Americana rocker act Donna the Buffalo’s 10th album, “Tonight Tomorrow and Yesterday,” was a long time coming.

The previous record had come out in 2008. And as the years spun by, some of the group’s fans were complaining that they weren’t hearing new music. That fact wasn’t lost on the band, Donna co-founder Tara Nevins said.

“We ourselves felt artistically like we were kind of jonesing to put out another project, you know,” Nevins said in a phone conversation last month. “Certainly, you can play 300 gigs a year and travel all over the world, but somehow, you’re only as happening as your latest record. I don’t know what that is, but that’s kind of a real thing in the industry.

“So yeah, we felt the pressures from inside ourselves, and from outside, certainly.”

In mid-June, the long awaited disc arrived, and it is doing well, bobbing around the Americana Music Association charts top 10. And it includes plenty for fans who had longed for new tunes at the hard-traveling band’s live shows.

“We’re pretty much playing them all,” Nevins said, adding that the tunes “I Love My Tribe” and “Working On That” are concert favorites.

“People really like the songs, absolutely,” she said.

The band plays twice in Southwest Virginia this month — first at Kirk Avenue Music Hall on Saturday. The next Saturday, Sept. 14, DtB plays the Black Dog Music and BBQ Festival at Chateau Morrisette.

They’ll be playing with a well-seasoned road act, but one that has changed almost completely over the past few years.

New players

The band, which formed in New York state, still includes Nevins and band co-founder Jeb Puryear. Both of them write Donna’s music. But otherwise, everyone is relatively new.

Drummer Mark Raudabaugh and bassist Kyle Spark had never recorded with DtB before “Tonight Tomorrow and Yesterday.” Keyboardist David McCracken had only recorded one tune on the band’s previous record, “Silverlined.”

It wasn’t a blowup that led to the personnel changes. Rather, one member after another left to do something else, said Nevins, who is happy with the way things turned out.

“They’re terrific,” Nevins, a multi-instrumentalist, said of the current sidemen. “They really are. We’re really loving this incarnation of the band.

“We have a good time together. They’re just great players, great guys. And I think they help deliver Jeb’s and my songs in a really great way. I think the songs come across better than ever with these players.”

Saturday, September 14, 2013

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