Donna the Buffalo's music belongs on the festival circuit — it's an engaging mix of roots, bluegrass, reggae, country and New Orleans-inspired zydeco. Donna the Buffalo has been playing together for 21 years and is a staple at MerleFest and Shakori Hills, two North Carolina music festivals.
This Friday, they're coming to Greensboro.
"We just come from a base of traditional music," said Tara Nevins, one of the band's original members. Nevins formed the band with Jeb Puryear, and both play old-time fiddle.
"Over the years of playing fiddle music, we discovered other traditional music," Nevins said. "We don't do it on purpose, it's just that we have a lot of music that we've been involved in over the years and that we love."
Nevins, who started out playing the fiddle, bought an accordion about 20 years ago.
"That gave us a Louisiana flavor to our songs," she said. "We just have a lot of musical influences, because of some of the different instruments we play, those flavors come out in our music."
The band's three other members, Dave McCracken, Vic Stafford and Kyle Spark, play the keyboards, drums and bass. McCracken is a Greensboro native.
Donna the Buffalo's most recent album, "Silverlined," was released on Sugar Hill Records in 2008 and peaked at No. 8 on the Americana Music Chart. The band has a core group of devotees, who call themselves "The Herd," and often travel festival-to-festival to see Donna the Buffalo perform.
Nevins just finished work on a solo album, "Wood and Stone," which will be released on Sugar Hill in April. "Wood and Stone" is her second solo album. The last, "Mule to Ride," showcased the fiddle and was, Nevins said, more "old-time bluegrass." This new album, she said, showcases her songwriting.
"I've written pretty much everything on the record," Nevins said. "It's not all about the fiddle the way the first one was."
She said the band is planning to return to the studio in late February to work on a new album.
"It's going to be a collaboration," Nevins said. "We're inviting other artists that we've played at with festivals over the years — artists we admire."
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