Café da Vinci doesn't book a Tuesday lightly. The DeLand listening room runs 80 seats and a piano in the corner, and the owner — Tonia, who's been there since 2011 — only puts a band in there if she's heard them.
Buck Hollow rolled in at 6 p.m. on a Tuesday, opened the cases, and didn't get a soundcheck. The room filled before doors. By 7:30 the band was on the porch with the upright bass standing against the brick because there wasn't room inside the green room.
The set was 90 minutes and they played 12 songs. The four-part harmony on Hard Rain Comin' Up — the band's third single, out on Bandcamp last month — held the room quiet for two and a half minutes. Then it broke open and they played the next three songs without a stop.
Two encores. No setlist. The bass player capoed his bow on the third encore because his rosin block snapped backstage and he was making do.
For working bluegrass bands in central Florida, da Vinci is the kind of room that used to disappear ten years ago and is starting to come back. We've been counting: DeLand has three Tuesday listening rooms now where five years ago it had none. That's a real touring lane.
Buck Hollow plays Mount Dora next Saturday. Tickets through the band's Listening Room.
Reported by The Bandstand · May 17, 2026.
