Norton Buffalo
Encyclopedia
Norton Buffalo was a singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

, country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 and blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

 harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...

 player, record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...

, bandleader and recording artist best known as a versatile exponent of the harmonica, including chromatic
Chromatic harmonica
The chromatic harmonica is a type of harmonica that uses a button-activated sliding bar to redirect air from the hole in the mouthpiece to the selected reed-plate desired. When the button is not pressed, an altered diatonic major scale of the key of the harmonica is available, while depressing the...

 and diatonic.

Career

Buffalo, the son of a harmonica player, was born in Oakland
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...

, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 and raised in Richmond, California
Richmond, California
Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was incorporated on August 7, 1905. It is located in the East Bay, part of the San Francisco Bay Area. It is a residential inner suburb of San Francisco, as well as the site of heavy industry, which has been...

. At John F. Kennedy High School he performed in a series of bands. By the early 1970s he gained renown as a San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...

 musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

, playing with such Bay Area groups as Clover
Clover (band)
Clover was an American country rock band formed in Mill Valley, California in 1967. They are best known as the backup band for Elvis Costello's 1977 debut album My Aim Is True , and for members later forming or joining more successful acts, including Huey Lewis and the News, The Doobie Brothers,...

, , and Elvin Bishop
Elvin Bishop
Elvin Bishop is an American blues and rock and roll musician and guitarist.-Career:Bishop was born in Glendale, California, and grew up on a farm near Elliott, Iowa. His family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, when he was ten years old...

.

In early 1976 Buffalo joined the "farewell" European tour of Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen
Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen
Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen is an American country rock band founded in 1967. Core members included founder George Frayne, John Tichy, Billy C. Farlow, Bill Kirchen, Andy Stein, Paul "Buffalo" Bruce Barlow, Lance Dickerson, and Bobby Black....

, and was recorded on the band's final live album
Live album
A live album is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances using remote recording techniques, commonly contrasted with a studio album...

 We've Got A Live One Here!, which included Buffalo's song
Song
In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...

 Eighteen Wheels. After the tour, Buffalo returned to California, briefly played with a number of local bands, and later in 1976 he joined the Steve Miller Band
Steve Miller Band
The Steve Miller Band is an American rock band formed in 1967 in San Francisco, California. The band is managed by Steve Miller on guitar and lead vocals, and is known for a string of mid-1970s hit singles that are staples of the classic rock radio format.-History:In 1965, Steve Miller and...

's Fly Like an Eagle
Fly Like an Eagle
- Track listing :Side one# "Space Intro"  – 1:15# "Fly Like an Eagle"  – 4:42# "Wild Mountain Honey"  – 4:51# "Serenade"  – 3:13...

national tour. He also played harmonica on the band's hit
Hit record
A hit record is a sound recording, usually in the form of a single or album, that sells a large number of copies or otherwise becomes broadly popular or well-known, through airplay, club play, inclusion in a film or stage play soundtrack, causing it to have "hit" one of the popular chart listings...

 follow-up album Book of Dreams
Book of Dreams
Book of Dreams is the tenth studio album by American rock band The Steve Miller Band. The album was released in 1977 on the Capitol label in North America and on the Mercury label in Europe...

, released in May 1977. Buffalo appeared on the tracks Winter Time and The Stake.

By the late 1970s Buffalo had formed his own band, The Stampede, and recorded two Capitol Records
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...

 albums: Lovin' in the Valley of the Moon and Desert Horizon. In 1977 his harmonica work appeared on Bonnie Raitt's
Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially...

 Sweet Forgiveness
Sweet Forgiveness
-Track listing:#"About to Make Me Leave Home" – 4:14#"Runaway" – 3:57#"Two Lives" – 3:49#"Louise" – 2:45#"Gamblin' Man" – 3:27#"Sweet Forgiveness" – 4:11...

and The Doobie Brothers'
The Doobie Brothers
The Doobie Brothers are an American rock band. The group has sold over 40 million units worldwide throughout their career. The Doobie Brothers were inducted into The Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2004.-Original incarnation:...

 Livin' On The Fault Line
Livin' on the Fault Line
Livin' on the Fault Line is the seventh studio album by the American rock band The Doobie Brothers, released in 1977. It is one of the few Doobie Brothers albums which did not produce a hit . Still, the album received modest critical acclaim...

albums. Not long after the release of his second album in 1979, Buffalo and his band were featured on the PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....

 music television program Austin City Limits
Austin City Limits
Austin City Limits is an American public television music program recorded live in Austin, Texas by Public Broadcasting Service Public television member station KLRU, and broadcast on many PBS stations around the United States...

. In 1981 he produced an album for the popular Northwest band Wheatfield. He was a member of the Mickey Hart
Mickey Hart
Mickey Hart is an American percussionist and musicologist. He is best known as one of the two drummers of the rock band the Grateful Dead. He was a member of the Grateful Dead from September 1967 to February 1971, and from October 1974 to August 1995...

 band High Noon in the late 70s and early 80s with Merl Saunders
Merl Saunders
Merl Saunders, was an American multi-genre musician who played piano and keyboards, favoring the Hammond B-3 console organ.-Biography:...

, Mike Hinton
Mike Hinton
Michael "Mike" Hinton is an American guitarist, residing in the San Francisco Bay Area. During his career, he has been a member of several bands such as Merl Saunders & the Rainforest Band for nine years, and has appeared on several albums with the Rainforest Band and other Merl Saunders projects,...

, Jim McPhearson, Vicki Randle
Vicki Randle
Vicki Randle is an American singer, multi-instrumentalist and composer, known as the first female member of the Tonight Show Band, starting with host Jay Leno in 1992...

, and Bobby Vega, and played with Saunders on the Rainforest Band
Rainforest Band
The Rainforest Band is a jam band that spans several genres, including jazz, rock, world music, R&B, and funk. Founded in 1990, it produced four albums and performed for ten years.-History:...

 album It's in the Air in 1993.

Buffalo also appeared in and worked on several films. He did a cameo appearance
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...

 in the rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 movie
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

, The Rose
The Rose (film)
The Rose is a 1979 American musical drama film which tells the story of a self-destructive 1960s rock star who struggles to cope with the constant pressures of her career and the demands of her ruthless business manager...

starring Bette Midler
Bette Midler
Bette Midler is an American singer, actress, and comedian, also known by her informal stage name, The Divine Miss M. She became famous as a cabaret and concert headliner, and went on to star in successful and acclaimed films such as The Rose, Ruthless People, Beaches, and For The Boys...

, where he was a member of the band (on harmonica and trombone
Trombone
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...

) and spoke a line or two. He had another cameo in Michael Cimino
Michael Cimino
Michael Cimino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and author. He is best known for writing and directing Academy Award-winning The Deer Hunter and the infamous Heaven's Gate. His films are characterized by their striking visual style and controversial subject...

's 1979 film Heaven's Gate
Heaven's Gate (film)
Heaven's Gate is a 1980 American epic Western film based on the Johnson County War, a dispute between land barons and European immigrants in Wyoming in the 1890s...

starring Kris Kristofferson
Kris Kristofferson
Kristoffer "Kris" Kristofferson is an American musician, actor, and writer. He is known for hits such as "Me and Bobby McGee", "For the Good Times", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and "Help Me Make It Through the Night"...

, Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken is an American stage and screen actor. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including Joe Dirt, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New...

, Sam Waterston
Sam Waterston
Samuel Atkinson "Sam" Waterston is an American actor and occasional producer and director. Among other roles, he is noted for his Academy Award-nominated portrayal of Sydney Schanberg in 1984's The Killing Fields, and his Golden Globe- and Screen Actors Guild Award-winning portrayal of Jack McCoy...

 and Jeff Bridges
Jeff Bridges
Jeffrey Leon "Jeff" Bridges is an American actor and musician. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Otis "Bad" Blake in the 2009 film Crazy Heart....

. He also co-wrote the music for the films Stacy's Knights and Eddie Macon's Run
Eddie Macon's Run
Eddie Macon's Run is a 1983 film starring Kirk Douglas and John Schneider, based on the 1980 novel by James McLendon.- Plot :Eddie Macon was wrongly convicted of a crime. While performing at a prison rodeo in Huntsville, Texas, he escapes and heads for the border, hoping to join his family in Mexico...

with guitarist Mike Hinton
Mike Hinton
Michael "Mike" Hinton is an American guitarist, residing in the San Francisco Bay Area. During his career, he has been a member of several bands such as Merl Saunders & the Rainforest Band for nine years, and has appeared on several albums with the Rainforest Band and other Merl Saunders projects,...

.

Norton performed and recorded as a member of The Steve Miller Band for over 32 years. He often performed and recorded music as a session musician
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...

, and appeared on 180 albums. A cover of Buffalo's song Ain't No Bread In The Breadbox was in heavy rotation at Jerry Garcia Band
Jerry Garcia Band
The Jerry Garcia Band was a San Francisco Bay Area rock band led by Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. Garcia founded the band in 1975; it remained the most important of his various side-projects until his death in 1995...

 concerts from 1991 until Jerry Garcia
Jerry Garcia
Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia was an American musician best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead...

's death in 1995, and appeared on the live release Shining Star.

On September 2, 2009 Buffalo was diagnosed with stage 4 adenocarcinoma
Adenocarcinoma
Adenocarcinoma is a cancer of an epithelium that originates in glandular tissue. Epithelial tissue includes, but is not limited to, the surface layer of skin, glands and a variety of other tissue that lines the cavities and organs of the body. Epithelium can be derived embryologically from...

 of the lower right lobe of the lung. The next day, he found out that it had spread to his brain. Norton retired to his home in Paradise
Paradise, California
Paradise is an incorporated town in Butte County, in the northwest foothills of California's Central Valley, in the Sierra. The town is considered part of the Chico Metropolitan Area. The population was 26,218 at the 2010 census, down from 26,408 at the 2000 census...

, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, where he sought treatment at Feather River Hospital
Feather River Hospital
Feather River Hospital is a 101-bed acute care hospital near Sacramento, with a wide array of outpatient departments and services designed to meet the health care needs of Paradise, California and its neighboring communities.-History:...

. He died on October 30, 2009 in Feather River Hospital.

In honor of his life and career (over 180 album appearances), friends of Buffalo threw "A Celebration of Life: Tribute To Norton Buffalo." The event occurred at the Fox Theater in Oakland, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. Acts and performers included, The Doobie Brothers
The Doobie Brothers
The Doobie Brothers are an American rock band. The group has sold over 40 million units worldwide throughout their career. The Doobie Brothers were inducted into The Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2004.-Original incarnation:...

, Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially...

, Huey Lewis
Huey Lewis
Huey Lewis is an American musician, songwriter and occasional actor.Lewis sings lead and plays harmonica for his band Huey Lewis and the News, in addition to writing or co-writing many of the band's songs...

, George Thorogood
George Thorogood
George Thorogood is an American blues rock vocalist/guitarist from Wilmington, Delaware, United States, known for his hit song "Bad to the Bone" as well as for covers of blues standards such as Hank Williams' "Move It On Over" and John Lee Hooker's "House Rent Boogie/One Bourbon, One Scotch, One...

, Elvin Bishop
Elvin Bishop
Elvin Bishop is an American blues and rock and roll musician and guitarist.-Career:Bishop was born in Glendale, California, and grew up on a farm near Elliott, Iowa. His family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, when he was ten years old...

, Carlos Reyes, and Buffalo's home band the Steve Miller Band
Steve Miller Band
The Steve Miller Band is an American rock band formed in 1967 in San Francisco, California. The band is managed by Steve Miller on guitar and lead vocals, and is known for a string of mid-1970s hit singles that are staples of the classic rock radio format.-History:In 1965, Steve Miller and...

, which Buffalo was a member of for 33 years, headlined the show. The show was a benefit concert for the Buffalo family.

Awards

Buffalo played harmonica on two tracks on The Doobie Brothers
The Doobie Brothers
The Doobie Brothers are an American rock band. The group has sold over 40 million units worldwide throughout their career. The Doobie Brothers were inducted into The Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2004.-Original incarnation:...

' Grammy award winning 1978 album Minute By Minute
Minute by Minute
Minute by Minute is the eighth studio album by American rock band The Doobie Brothers, released in 1978. The album contains their biggest hit, the Grammy-winning "What a Fool Believes". "Depending on You" and the title track were also released as singles...

. He was also nominated for a Grammy in 1992 for "Best Country Instrumental Performance" for the tune Song For Jessica from his 1991 Duet CD R&B with Guitarist Roy Rogers
Roy Rogers (guitarist)
Roy Rogers is an American blues rock slide guitarist and record producer. He was named after the singing cowboy, Roy Rogers...

, on Blind Pig Records
Blind Pig Records
Blind Pig Records is an American blues record label.Blind Pig was formed in 1977 in Ann Arbor, Michigan by Jerry Del Giudice, owner of the Blind Pig Cafe, and his friend Edward Chmelewski. The label is now based in San Francisco...

.

Discography

  • Lovin' in the Valley of the Moon, Capitol Records
    Capitol Records
    Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...

    , 1977
  • Desert Horizon, Capitol Records, 1978
  • R & B (with slide guitarist Roy Rogers
    Roy Rogers (guitarist)
    Roy Rogers is an American blues rock slide guitarist and record producer. He was named after the singing cowboy, Roy Rogers...

    ) (Blind Pig, 1991)
  • Travellin’ Tracks (with Roy Rogers) (Blind Pig, 1992)
  • It's In The Air - Merl Saunders & the Rainforest Band (Summertone 1993)
  • King of the Highway (Blind Pig Records
    Blind Pig Records
    Blind Pig Records is an American blues record label.Blind Pig was formed in 1977 in Ann Arbor, Michigan by Jerry Del Giudice, owner of the Blind Pig Cafe, and his friend Edward Chmelewski. The label is now based in San Francisco...

    , 2000)
  • Roots Of Our Nature (Blind Pig Records
    Blind Pig Records
    Blind Pig Records is an American blues record label.Blind Pig was formed in 1977 in Ann Arbor, Michigan by Jerry Del Giudice, owner of the Blind Pig Cafe, and his friend Edward Chmelewski. The label is now based in San Francisco...

    , 2003)
  • The Spirit Of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar with George Kahumoku Jr. (Daniel Ho Creations, 2008)


Go to Norton Buffalo's Official Website for a detailed listing of his other recordings.

Filmography

  • Heaven's Gate
    Heaven's Gate (film)
    Heaven's Gate is a 1980 American epic Western film based on the Johnson County War, a dispute between land barons and European immigrants in Wyoming in the 1890s...

    (1979)
  • The Rose
    The Rose (film)
    The Rose is a 1979 American musical drama film which tells the story of a self-destructive 1960s rock star who struggles to cope with the constant pressures of her career and the demands of her ruthless business manager...

    (1979)
  • Blood Beach
    Blood Beach
    Blood Beach is a 1981 horror B movie written and directed by Jeffrey Bloom. It stars John Saxon and Burt Young. The premise involves a creature lurking beneath the sand of Venice Beach that attacks locals and vacationers. The film's tagline is: "Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the...

    (1980)
  • Eddie Macon's Run
    Eddie Macon's Run
    Eddie Macon's Run is a 1983 film starring Kirk Douglas and John Schneider, based on the 1980 novel by James McLendon.- Plot :Eddie Macon was wrongly convicted of a crime. While performing at a prison rodeo in Huntsville, Texas, he escapes and heads for the border, hoping to join his family in Mexico...

    (1983) co-wrote the music with Mike Hinton
  • Stacy's Knights (1983) co-wrote the music with Mike Hinton
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