Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. In This Life
2. Tides Of Time
3. America
4. Family Picture
5. Riddle Of The Universe
6. If You Only Could
7. Seems To Want To Hurt This Time

Disc 2:

1. Standing Room Only
2. Ancient Arms
3. Come To Life
4. Revelation Two-Step
5. Push Comes To Shove
6. Living In Babylon
7. Conscious Evolution
8. There Must Be

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #167689 in Music
• Released on: 2002-01-15
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Live

Amazon.com
Donna the Buffalo--hard to categorize, but easy to love--are meant to be heard live. The six-member group thrives on jams and grooves, blending, bending, and veering from Appalachian country to Cajun, reggae, zydeco, folk, and roots rock often in the same song (check out the nearly 13-minute "Conscious Evolution"). Frequently compared to the Grateful Dead, DTB evoke Jerry Garcia and pals, both musically and with their rabid, nomadic fan base (the Herd). But in mixing tribal celebration with spiritual, social, and political issues, the band, which travels the country in a 1960 tour bus, recalls so many other hippie-era ensembles that this two-CD 2001 concert recording might as well have been cut at the Fillmore in '68. Jeb Puryear's electric guitar hearkens, at times, to the plaintive scorching of Big Brother & the Holding Company, and yet the group also knows the importance of melody, as on "Family Picture," where Tara Nevins anchors the lyrics and rides them over a driving beat and a riff so infectious you'll be reaching for the repeat button. Two discs might be stretching things a bit, but put on a tie-dyed T-shirt and light up a smoke, and you'll be clamoring for space on that bus. --Alanna Nash

Customer Reviews

Jamming in the USA
Combine musicians extremely skilled in all forms of American roots music, plug them in to make a mostly electric band, add psychedelic garage band Lowery organ sounds, stir with lyrics that touch on various eternal truths, and you get a conscious dance party from this upstate NY that has been playing together for more than 12 years called Donna the Buffalo. Multi-instrumentalist Tara Nevins adds much to the ever-changing sound of the group as she switches between fiddle, accordion, rubboard and acoustic guitar, as well as vocals, which she alternates especially with guitarists Jeb Puryear and Jim Miller. Fans have been waiting a long time for Donna to put out a live recording, and this double album captures the intoxicating rhythmic vibrations of their live shows. Live from the American Ballroom was recorded on the band's spring tour, and shows their affection for driving, zydeco-fueled grooves. The musicians rip through rollicking renditions of "Riddle of the Universe" and "America," and they splash some spicy Southwest Louisiana riffs into "Tides of Time." They soar into rocketing Bo Diddley beats during a lengthy work out of "Conscious Evolution, and then downshift into their old-timey roots on the song's bouncy ending. Two tracks really stand out on the album, and they come from totally different musical planets. The band cooks up a mesmerizing groove at the beginning of "Ancient Arms," and rides the sweeping melodies all the way to the song's closing notes. While this tune showcases the majestic beauty of their music, the group reveals a more adventurous side during "Push Comes To Shove." The exploratory edginess of this improvisational number is radically different from their usual stuff, and it transported me back to the psychedelic jams of the late 1960's (they are in fact one of the favorite band of deadheads, in fact they also have an avid following called "The Herd). You can't miss with this CD.

Happy, happy tunes
I really, really like Donna the B. This is the band that brought me out of my post Garcia blues, the first band that wrote songs that were so engaging I played the discs over and over again. I wore out, literally, Positive Friction and bought a second copy. This double live LP is less good, but still definitely worth owning. The recording is a little lifeless from a technical standpoint, but then it's live, and maybe they didn't have the best sound that day. Or those days. But be that as it may, this is wonderful, happy jam music, highly recommended. I know they aren't the Dead, not by a mile, nor do they wish to be, but this music made me perk up my ears when nothing else did.

Good times, only fair musicianship
Donna The Buffalo is good times music. No matter what your mood, put on some DTB and you're gonna smile and feel like shufflin' around the floor. In particular, Tara Nevins is a fine fiddler and a singer in a vein similar to a young Emmylou Harris.

DTB are some of the best songwriters in the jamband scene, they write songs with great hooks and they can sure mine a beat. Unfortunately, what doesn't come across as their strong suit on this release is their relatively limited ability to stretch out and jam. If you're looking for great instruemental solos, this one is likely to leave you lacking.

Normally, I prefer live releases over studio discs by any given artist on any given day, but this one just didn't do it for me. DTB has three excellent(!) studio releases in "Rockin' In the Weary Land", "Positive Friction", and "Life's a Ride", all of which get more listens (and smiles!) from me than this one.

Sure, listening to this you can tell the audience was having a party - but their studio albums will have you dancin' and grinnin' even more than this one.

The music of DTB absolutely WILL make you happy, but I'd start with their other releases first. 2 1/2 stars.