PREVIEW Donna the Buffalo Where: G.A.R. Hall, 1785 Main Street, Peninsula.
Opener: Bess Greenberg.
Tickets: Sold out.
CLEVELAND, Ohio – Tara Nevins was tired.
She and her Donna the Buffalo band mates had just landed back home in New York after doing five days in Jamaica with Dark Star Orchestra and Los Lobos, playing for sold-out crowds.
Yeah, poor thing. Jamaica in the wintertime.
But you gotta realize, the groove-heavy folk rockers, who’ve also got a little country and even zydeco and jug band in their sound, basically have been on the road since 1989.
Their next stop in Ohio will be at Peninsula’s historic G.A.R. Hall, one of the most beautiful and unique concert venues in this area, as part of the venue’s “Voices in the Valley” program. Expect to see a lot of “The Herd,” the band’s uber loyal fan base, in the quaint confines of the town.
“We do have a great following – a well-oiled machine,” said Nevins in a telephone interview while leaving the airport in New York City and headed to the band’s “new” bus.
“We just did a go-fund-me on Facebook [for the bus] and raised almost $90,000,” she said. “That was so encouraging and felt pretty good after doing this for so long o be able to buy a new bus.”
Nevins has toured – in what you might loosely call her “down time” — with former Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann, and there are those who see similarities in the two bands, with the Deadheads and the Herd. She herself laughs at the comparison.
“A lot of people who like us who did follow the Dead, and they follow Dark Star Orchestra and usually like us, too,” she said. “But we don’t attract the crowds like the Dead did.”
Nevins and fellow lead singer Jeb Puryear are the primary songwriters for the band, and in that time-honored folkie tradition, they believe in using their music to promote unity and love for your fellow man . . . or woman.
“Working on That,” a song off the latest album, “Tonight, Tomorrow and Yesterday,” pretty much acknowledges where we are as a species, and where we hope to go:
Yeah, we’re working on that, we’re working on that
No matter the shade of your skin or the shape of your hat
We’re working on that, we’re working on that
Until peace, love and justice covers the map
She acknowledged that music – especially music like that of Donna the Buffalo – can be a life ring in troubled political times like these. And, asked about the recent reaction to statements by Meryl Streep and others in the entertainment industry, she discounts those who call for actors to shut up and act or musicians to just shut up and sing.
“That’s silly and it’s ridiculous,” Nevins said. “We live in a place where freedom of speech is guaranteed.
“Second of all, music has a way of reaching people that typical conversation and everyday rhetoric does not,” she said. “Sometimes, the heavy message of a song can reach people in a profound way [because] music has a way of finding its way into your cells.”
That’s one reason the band has been able to survive so long, and through a few lineup changes, with the exception of Puryear and Nevins.
“Time flies,” she said, laughing. “Loving what we do and having the Herd keeps us going.”
Plus that new bus!
“It’s a beautiful bus,” Nevins gushed. “It’s multicolored on the outside: gold, green and maroon – Mardi Gras colors. On the inside, it’s beautiful, with lots of reconstruction and wood floors and beautiful new curtains.”
And best of all for a tired Nevins, nice, comfortable beds.
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