When guitarist Jeb Puryear first caught wind of the old time fiddle players at traditional music gatherings around Ithaca NY in the early 1970s he was convinced the sound was already an international phenomenon. The founding member of Donna the Buffalo, his popular American roots music and jam band, also noticed how these events provided everybody a chance to be part of something larger than themselves.
"I thought fiddle music was going on all around the world,” Puryear said from his home in Ithaca. “I figured if I could learn to play like that I’d have it made. As I got a little older I realized it was only going on here and a few other places.”
Puryear wasn't alone in feeling a sense of community at these events. He and a future yet-to-be-introduced band mate were about to find each other and, in turn, a lifelong joy of learning and playing music together.
“I’d go to these music festivals and play in the fiddle contests," Puryear said. "It’s a very social music. You’d bring your instrument and you could play with all these different people. That’s how I met Tara (Nevins).” (Nevins, an old-time fiddle player herself, helped co-found D the B)
Puryear feels that artists provide a service, of sorts. This utility gives all people--front of the house and back of the house--an equal chance chance to participate. In his view, music is a conduit.
“If you’re at one of our shows and the sound is good, you’re in it as much as anyone; just as much as the person playing guitar or drums,” Puryear said. "We have an ability to go out as a band and connect with this thing that we all enjoy. We’re fortunate that when we do other people have a similar ability to connect to it.”
D the B carries a socially-conscious sticky note. Puryear credits his father, who was on the academia staff at Cornell University in New York, with showing him how to live outside the norm.
“He was one to stop paying attention to societal expectations. He grew to dislike academic circles. Often the main topic around the table was what was working in society and what was not.”
Puryear credits the early fiddle exposure, as well as the music of the Highwoods String Band, for how his guitar style sounds today.
“My guitar playing is half trying to make fiddle sounds that I remember and the other half is trying what I heard Jimi Hendrix do on guitar,” he said with a laugh.
Donna the Buffalo finds continued success by fusing thoughtfully crafted lyrics and indigenous American sounds, like Cajun and zydeco, with Caribbean island rhythms. The consistency is entirely groove-laden. Together these elements provide an opportunity for positive individual interaction.
“I think people are looking for more of a bond to earth and a new humanity,” Puryear said. “By creating with our music we’re able to tap into the nice feeling we get. It also allows us to express ideas about the way we feel things ought to be. More often than not this comes down on the loving side of living.”
Donna the Buffalo wsg Big Dudee Roo and The Turnips, Saturday, at the Intersection. Doors 7, show 8.
Tickets: www.etix.com
The Bar: www.sectionlive.com
Heed the Herd: www.donnathebuffalo.com/
