Document text
June 28, 2004 - Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels April 15, 2004 Buffalo is having a ball By Steve Zimmerman Ashland Daily Tidings When talking about legendary harmonica player Norton Buffalo, it is easier to ask who he hasn't played with than who he has. Buffalo is most renowned for his playing with The Steve Miller Band. But, his resume reads like a who's who of the music industry. And, even though he started playing in the 1970s, he is still a hot commodity today. Buffalo had just finished doing a couple of benefits for John Kerry in the Bay area. "I played at the fundraiser with Boz Scaggs, Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead, Ray Manzarek of The Doors and Roy Rogers," he said. " We sang two Bob Dylan songs during the night. Boz did 'It Takes A Lot To Laugh and It Takes A Train To Cry' and Phil sang '(Just Like) Tom Thumb's Blues.'" The benefit raised about $3 million. An early start Buffalo began playing the harmonica at the age of seven, learning the instrument from his dad, who lives in Grants Pass. While he was growing up playing in rock bands, his real passion was jazz. But it was the progressive rock sounds of The Steve Miller Band in the '70s that made Buffalo a household name. He still tours with Miller when he hits the road but his upcoming show at 8 p.m. at the Rogue Theatre in Grants Pass will be a history of Buffalo's music and a sneak peak into the future. "For those who have been my long-time fans, they know my first album had a lot of material that was more country," he explained. "You might say they were a little more eclectic as my albums were always put in the eclectic category. So what I do with this musical trio, Norton Buffalo and Friends, is the acoustic side of what I do. The neat thing about the trio is we can do songs that most of the people who have been coming to see me with my band have not gotten to see." The audience at the Rogue Theatre will be exposed to every side of Buffalo's music. They are in for a long, pleasing night of music as Buffalo expects the show to go longer than two hours. "I decided that what would be great would be able to expose an audience in one evening to the whole ball of wax," he said. "This way, instead of me playing one night with my acoustic group and those people not being able to hear the band or I play somewhere with the band and those people don't get to hear the acoustic stuff. "So we have done a couple of these shows and the crowd stays for the whole show. They get treated to a really broad selection of music and a heck of a lot of harmonica. The great thing about the trio is also a lot of these songs are also songs that have great vocal harmony. I am having a ball." Buffalo's band has become more R & B and blues oriented. He is also performing a duet with Roy Rogers, which started with some folk aspects but has become more of a blues idiom. Still traveling Buffalo has been very busy recently. He just returned from a South American trip. "I was in Brazil in January and participated in a big blues festival," he said. "And then I played a club in Sao Paulo using a Brazilian band to back me up. We had a ball and got to play with some really wonderful Brazilian musicians." Buffalo has been back in the studio also working an album with David Grisman on a CD for fiddle player Vassar Clements, which is a blues CD. Clements is best known for making bluegrass music but has always wanted to do a blues record. Grisman will appear at The Craterian May 6 for the final concert in the One World season. To illustrate just how much in demand Buffalo is and how well thought of he is in the music community, he performed a benefit a few weeks ago for a club in the Bay area. He couldn't get off stage. "I performed my 20 minute set and then I was followed by Al Stewart ('Year of the Cat')," he noted. "I played two songs with Al and then shortly after Al was Bonnie Raitt. I played three songs with her. After Bonnie was Maria Muldaur ('Midnight at the Oasis') and I played a couple of songs with her and I also played with Narada Michael Walden and Shannon Morrison (Van Morrison's daughter). I was actually trying to get offstage but there was no room." DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams