Buck Fuffalo: Where humor meets heart

Local Stephenville singer and songwriter Buck Fuffalo, known for his humorous music will be hitting the LJT stage on Saturday, April 27 to perform songs from his newest album “Fables and Folklore of the 21st Century.”

Before he started performing, he worked in a food cart at the festival and dreamed that one day he would be up on the Larry Joe Taylor Stage.

“Once upon a time I worked the foot long corn dog booth and I was totally daydreaming like wouldn’t that be cool to part of this,” Fuffalo said. “Now years later my shirts are going to be hanging in the merch tent right there with Ray Wylie Hubbard and Turnpike Troubadours and there’s going be some poster that has Buck Fuffalo printed on it and nothing can take away the fact that I really did make a dream come true.”

When describing his sound the singer commented, “I’ve made it a goal to try and be diverse in my writing so it varies. I just want people to hear a song and feel it and believe it regardless if it’s funny sad or rocking. Goal is to just be authentic,” Fuffalo said.

Although the singer is mostly known for his funny and often risqué writing style, he took this album as an opportunity to explore some more serious subject matters from his own life.

“I think I’m most proud of ‘Moth Song’ because that was my transition in my life where I decided to not just write funny songs and so it’s metaphoric in the first verse,” Fuffalo said. “The second along with the bridge is about my dad who had just passed away when I was writing that so I really wanted to highlight the positive things he brought to my life and hopefully encourage others to pursue whatever crazy dream you have not matter how different you may feel or not matter how bad your life may seem.”

The artist first tried his hand at performing after college. He used music as a way to make him feel more connected at a time in his life when he felt very lost.

“I was living out in the woods all alone after college and was honestly lonely and felt like I wasn’t ready for that to be the only thing I did with my life,” Fuffalo said. I didn’t want to just coast alone until I was in the dirt so figured I’d give it a go after randomly playing a song called everyone in Nashville songs like a bitch. Deryl Dodd just happened to be there and loved it, told me I needed to try and make it out there. So if you don’t like my music blame Deryl Dodd.”

Fuffalo expressed how thankful he was to those that first inspired him when he was just starting out.

“As you meet people you start to see who is doing it the right way and who is just screwing around for fun,” Fuffalo said. “So right off the bat, Jon Young locally has been a huge mentor to me both personally and musically. Over time getting to know me. Hussey and Larry Joe Taylor I’d say they have given me great advice and it’s encouraging to watch how people I know are making a living doing what they love.”

The band came together gradually. The lead singer believes that his bandmates and himself share a not only a friendship but a musical connection.

“When you start floating around the music scene you slowly make connections and some people you just click with musically and somehow spiritually it seems,” Fuffalo said. My drummer Josh Cavender comes from a rock background and I love the drive he gives to our live shows. I needed a drummer to fill in for me in Port Aransas so we had a ton of road time to learn about each other and we were tight ever since. My Bass player Billy Hartman is now one of my best friends in life. He’s a singer songwriter too and our style of writing is very similar so even before he joined my band we were playing all over Texas and even into California and Arizona with another great songwriter friend of ours named Zach Pack.”

The band is very excited about how their 2019 album is doing with listeners. For them, it is not just about the numbers on the charts. It is about the personal experience that fans have with the songs on the album.

“Well I get data on where it charting and can log in to Spotify and iTunes so I feel good about it. I believe it’s doing well,” Fuffalo said. “I think the coolest thing I was told was this kid said we woke up one Saturday morning saw a post about my album and clicked play. Told me he heard the intro and pushed pause. Got up got dressed rolled a smoke and got in his truck because he knew he was going need to listen to the entire album straight through. So he did backroading twice in a row. That’s just a good feeling.”

When asked what his favorite venue was Fuffalo couldn’t name just one.

“Well there’s definitely some places that always treat us right I’d have to say Rustic Tap in Austin and Greenwood Saloon,” Fuffalo said. “The people that work at both of those places treat us like family and I feel the same way about them. Just good people and good vibes.”

If he could play any venue Fuffalo wasn’t able to just say one.

“I think every artist in Texas has a bucket list of venues. Gruene Hall, Cheatham Street Warehouse and Billy Bobs have to be on that list for the history alone,” Fuffalo said. “Outside of that I think every artist hopes to play Red Rock Amphitheater in Colorado it’s just only of the most unique and beautiful venues in the country.”

Fuffalo is anxious to get up on the Larry Joe Stage and perform his music. He talked about his favorite song to play for a live audience saying.

“I’d say my favorite personal song to play is’ Chain Gang’ full band,” Fuffalo said. “We just literally rock the hell out to it and it becomes this one massive sound. God I love it.”

Fans can see Buck Fuffalo performing many of the songs off his newest album on Saturday, April 27 on the Hydro Pros Stage in the T-Birds Garage Pub at this year’s Larry Joe Taylor’s Texas Music Festival.