If you need an excuse to make the run up to South Burlington, here is one worth taking. On Saturday, September 26, Higher Ground’s Ballroom hosts Donna the Buffalo — 30-plus years of near-constant touring and one of the most devoted fanbases in American roots music, walking through the door at 8:00 PM.
About Donna the Buffalo
Formed in Trumansburg, New York in 1989 by guitarist Jeb Puryear and multi-instrumentalist Tara Nevins — two musicians who first connected over old-time fiddle and Appalachian music — Donna the Buffalo built their sound long before the genre had a name for it. As Nevins puts it: “We were Americana before Americana was Americana.” Even the band’s name came from a happy accident: a mishearing of “Dawn of the Buffalo” that they just kept.
Today the quintet — Puryear, Nevins, keyboardist Dave McCracken, bassist Kyle Spark, and drummer Mark Raudabaugh — blends folk, Cajun/zydeco, country, rock, funk, and reggae into something the Americana Music Show described as “Americana’s answer to the Grateful Dead.” Live, they run long and responsive — reviewers report sets in the 2.5-hour range, the band feeding off each other the whole way through. Their fanbase, known as the Herd, spans generations and travels specifically for nights like this.
Their upstate New York roots run deep. They co-founded the Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival in 1991 — a small Trumansburg benefit that grew into a 15,000-plus-attendee annual event now spanning multiple locations. They have toured alongside The Grateful Dead, Peter Rowan, and Little Feat, and logged appearances at Bonnaroo, Newport Folk Festival, and Austin City Limits Festival. Their most recent studio album, Dance in the Street, was recorded with producer Rob Fraboni, whose credits include Bob Dylan, The Band, Eric Clapton, and the Rolling Stones. Tara Nevins’ track “Motor” earned a nod from Rolling Stone as one of the “10 Best Country and Americana Songs of the Week.”
About Higher Ground
Higher Ground sits at 1214 Williston Rd in South Burlington — a 750-capacity Ballroom that draws roots and jam acts year-round and has the reputation to match. For North Country show-goers, it is a legitimate destination room, the kind that rewards the drive. This is an all-ages show. Doors open at 7:30 PM, music starts at 8:00 PM.
Tickets & Pricing
Tickets are $30–$35. Grab yours here before the Herd does. More show details at highergroundmusic.com.