Donna The Buffalo
GrassRoots Live! at Shakori Hills
Pittsboro NC
2021-06-11 Friday
72'F  96%RH


Source: (1) SBD (webcast)
        (2) BSCS-L > Edirol OCM R-44
Transfer: Audacity > Izotope RX 8 > Izotope Ozone 9 > CD Wave > TLH
Recorded and matrixed by capnhook
hooknshark@gmail.com


Start: 9.02pm

d1t01 -intro by Rob Gumby Hillard-
d1t02 It Has Been Much Too Long -instrumental-
d1t03 Love Time
d1t04 Beauty Within
d1t05 The Reason Why
d1t06 Tides Of Time
d1t07 Mystic Water
d1t08 Blue Sky
d1t09 It's Over (debut, working title)
d1t10 Heaven And The Earth
d1t11 -first gig back-
d1t12 Why You Wanna Leave Me
d1t13 Crash And Burn @
d1t14 Your Heart Beating Next To Mine (debut, working title)
d1t15 -banter-
d2t01 The Love You Left Behind (debut, working title)
d2t02 Positive Friction
d2t03 The Ones You Love
d2t04 -weather report-
d2t05 Seems To Want To Hurt This Time
d2t06 Just Like You (new Tara tune)
d2t07 -banter-
d2t08 Just Like Me (new Jeb tune)
d2t09 Ancient Arms
d2t10 raining-
d2t11 As I Wonder How Long I'll Be Alive (new Jeb tune, working title)
d2t12 Mrs. Maudrey #
d2t13 -outtro-

End: 11.14pm


@ - with Mollie Farr - backing vocals
# - with Jonas Puryear - Scrubboard


Tara Nevins - "It's so wonderful to see all of you! Ah, there you are, what a 
 beautiful sight.  It's been much too long."

Jeb Puryear - "Alright, everything Tara said, I said too."


Never For Sale.
Please support artists that allow taping by buying merchandise & attending shows.


Jeb Puryear - Electric Guitar, Vocals
Tara Nevins - Vocals, Guitar, Fiddle, Accordion, Scrubboard, Tambourine
David McCracken - B3, Clavinet
Chris English - Drums, backing vocals
Ted Pecchio - Bass


Photos courtesy of Rich Levine, unknown, and Elizabeth Larson.


Review by Paul R. (aka EstimatedProf):

“It has been much too long” indeed, as Tara said upon completion of an
 instrumental improv.  Linda D. discerned “Big Parade,” as per her FB post;
 a friend in our group thought she heard strains of “Mystic Water.”  Whatever, 
 what might have started out as filler, as the crew troubleshooted Jeb’s 
 microphone, turned into a captivating groove, akin to a communion meditation.
 So Tara’s phrase seems an apt, even if ephemeral title to an ad hoc set opener.
 Sometimes, the songs that we hear are songs of our own, true, but whatever we
 heard individually, there was a shared sense of Herd gathered.  “Love Time”
 seemed just the right followup.
This gathering has been a long time coming.  My last experience of a Donna
 the Buffalo show – indeed, of live music überhaupt – was fifteen months ago,
 specifically March 7, 2020, at the Orange Peel in Asheville.  I think most of
 us could tell the same story, and so for that reason, the joy of reuniting
 with friends was pervasive and strong.  I felt a certain awkwardness in
 greeting people. I think: I don’t have a handle on the post-vaccine etiquette.
 Perhaps it is still in flux and subject to individual comfort levels, but
 that’s another conversation.
This evening’s show was the band’s first gig since, well, March 7, 2020. 
 They seemed well rehearsed and had obviously come to play.  Chris English is
 an excellent drummer – superb musicianship with a warm smile – and he brings
 a new dimension to Donna as a backing vocalist.
The set list is interesting for its balanced mix of old favorites (“Tides
 of Time,” “Mystic Water,” “Positive Friction,” “The Ones You Love”), current
 “hits” (“Heaven & the Earth,” “The Beauty Within”), and new material, of
 which there was much.  As concerns the latter, I acknowledge that scribes do
 not have naming rights.  I hope it is not too presumptuous of me to impute
 working titles, based on what I discern as a forensic or recurring theme in
 the lyrics, as I process them.  All this to say that I invite correction and
 good information.  That caveat aside, the new songs are very strong.  I
 would love to hear Tara’s “The Love You Left Behind” (by whatever title she
 lands on) again . . . and again.  Jeb’s “If You Like Drinking,” which (if I
 understood correctly) he wrote with Gregor Sayet-Bone in Nashville, was
 enthusiastically received, as it should be.  Jeb’s “As I Wonder How Long
 I’ll Be Alive” (however he eventually titles it) poses a question that we
 all harbor, deep inside.

Après toi, Bras anciens, le déluge

Or, if that is too abstruse, at about 10.45pm or so, there occurred a heavy
 fall of rain, with the intensity of a gullywasher but not its brevity. 
 It’s axiomatic: Shakori Hills + Donna the Buffalo = water.  That put paid
 to an encore, as the rain apparently made the stage slippery and hazardous
 for the performers.  We were soaked by the time we got back to our cars. 
 (Aging knucklehead that I am, I had forgotten to roll up the car window on
 the passenger side after talking to a festival staff member.) The drive
 back to Durham was an adventure in itself, with intermittent fog on top of
 the constant downpour.  Thankfully, there were yellow reflectors (“cat’s
 eyes,” as they are called in the UK) in the center line to help me keep the
 car on the road.  Deer heightened the effect.  Along the way we saw a fawn
 that could not have been more than a couple days old.  Another, fully adult
 deer bolted along the side of the road at our approach; happily the animal
 ran parallel to us and did not attempt to cross the highway in front of us.
Arriving home totally drenched, I asked myself whether it was worth it. 
 Most assuredly it was.  Great to be with you again, dear friends.

Respectfully submitted,
Paul R. (aka EstimatedProf)

PS – I haven’t written in this genre in quite some time and am out of
 practice.  So apologies if this account is long-winded.


https://www.donnathebuffalo.com
https://shakorihillsgrassroots.org
