Search - Donna the Buffalo :: Live From the American Ballroom

Live From the American Ballroom
Donna the Buffalo
Live From the American Ballroom
Genres: Country, Blues, Folk, International Music, Pop, Rock
 
  •  Track Listings (7) - Disc #1
  •  Track Listings (8) - Disc #2

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,...  more »

     
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CD Details

All Artists: Donna the Buffalo
Title: Live From the American Ballroom
Members Wishing: 2
Total Copies: 0
Label: Donna the Buffalo
Original Release Date: 1/1/2002
Re-Release Date: 1/15/2002
Album Type: Live
Genres: Country, Blues, Folk, International Music, Pop, Rock
Styles: Americana, Regional Blues, Cajun & Zydeco, Contemporary Folk, Folk Rock, Jam Bands, Bluegrass Jam Bands, Rock Jam Bands
Number of Discs: 2
SwapaCD Credits: 2
UPCs: 616895312328, 829410549257

Synopsis

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

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CD Reviews

Jamming in the USA
03/03/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)

"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
Ryan McNabb | Ooltewah, TN USA | 08/06/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)

"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."