Foundation The Buffalo Club was founded in 1996 in
Nashville, Tennessee. John Dittrich, best known as the drummer for the
country music band
Restless Heart, founded the group along with Ron Hemby and Charlie Kelley. Working with Dan Goodman as their manager, the three musicians recorded a
demo which was sent to Ken Levitan, then president of
Rising Tide Records. The label's Nashville division, dedicated to country music, signed the band soon after. Hemby and Dittrich said their main influence was the
country rock of the 1970s, such as the
Eagles, particularly in the use of vocal harmony and acoustic guitar. Kelley thought that the band's sound would be appealing to radio as they intended to use fewer instruments on the songs than were normal at the time. After signing, the band began recording songs with producer
Barry Beckett. Dittrich had previously worked with Beckett on a movie soundtrack to which Restless Heart had contributed, and chose him to be the Buffalo Club's producer because he "admired" Beckett's production style. Additionally, Hemby noted that Beckett was less controlling than other producers with whom he had worked previously. This song had been previously offered to Restless Heart, who declined it. Its co-writers were
Trey Bruce and
Marc Beeson, the latter of whom was recording on
Curb Records as a member of
Burnin' Daylight. Joel Hoffner, then the vice president of sales and marketing for Rising Tide Records, came up with two unusual methods to promote the band. First, he sent packages containing plastic
buffalo in them, with no return address, to various industry executives before sending those same executives a promotional card for the band one week later. Hoffner observed that the plastic buffalo became a topic of conversation among said executives. In addition, the
compact disc single release of "If She Don't Love You" featured the song on it 20 times so that the song would continue playing if listeners neglected to turn off their players. Beckett produced the album and played keyboards on it, with other contributing musicians including
Eddie Bayers and
Michael Rhodes. Dittrich co-wrote the track "The Funny Thing Is", and Hemby co-wrote "Wish for You". An uncredited review of the album in
Billboard compared the band's sound favorably to that of the Eagles while also praising the songwriting. Gordon Ely of the
Richmond Times-Dispatch also reviewed the album with favor, drawing comparisons to the Eagles, Restless Heart, and
Crosby, Stills & Nash. His review was favorable toward the album's songwriting and the trio's vocal harmony. Robert Loy of
Country Standard Time gave a more mixed review, stating that "the harmonies are above average, and Ron Hemby's vocals deserve better material than anything here". Dittrich left the band in August 1997, stating in a letter of resignation, "I am no longer able to continue to do the things deemed necessary to break a new artist in this format". At the time of his resignation, Hemby and Kelley announced their intent to continue as a duo. The Buffalo Club then released their third and final single "Heart Hold On". Co-written by
Blackhawk lead singer
Henry Paul, this song peaked at number 53 on the country music charts.
Disbanding Hemby and Kelley disbanded in December 1997. In addition, Rising Tide Records closed in March 1998, with the Buffalo Club representing the label's only success at country radio. At the time of their disbanding, Rising Tide executive Ken Levitan stated that Dittrich's announcement that he would rejoin Restless Heart on a reunion tour in 1998 created disputes between the two of them and was a factor in Dittrich's departure. In addition, Hemby and Kelley were unable to continue as a duo because Hemby wanted to be the sole lead singer, whereas Kelley wanted the two to alternate on lead vocals. Dittrich rejoined Restless Heart in 1998 as part of the reunion tour. Hemby went on to become a touring musician for
David Kersh before becoming a worship leader at a church in
Franklin, Tennessee, in addition to founding an Eagles tribute band called the Eaglemaniacs. ==Discography==