Donald DePoy
DePoy, "a hometown farm boy",[4] started performing as a musician at the age of eight[5] when he first joined his father’s band onstage.
When DePoy's mother joined her husband and son on stage the band name changed to Carl & Don: The Skyline Pals, who from 1962 to 1979 played community dances, lawn parties, and beer taverns in the Shenandoah Valley and eastern West Virginia.
In addition to guitar, DePoy himself plays mountain dulcimer, autoharp, Dobro, mandolin, and the "bass fiddle".
He is a winning instrumentalist at the Old Fiddlers' Convention[7] in Galax, Virginia — a popular and prestigious old-time and bluegrass music festival.
The Skyline Pals started performing a weekly live one-hour radio program on WABH-AM in 1963, later expanding to a two-hour show.
As his father served as engineer for a local television and radio station, DePoy grew up in the field.
After taking a bachelor's degree in "radio-television-film" at Hampton Institute, DePoy found employment "designing education television programs for the Virginia community college system.
Malia Furtado, who teaches violin in Charlottesville, and Edd Michael of Port Republic add the fiddle dimension.
Guest bands have included Bob Prilla and Big Hillbilly Bluegrass, Mark Patterson and Midnight Special, Hats in the Creek, and Andrew Carter and Gypsy Hill Ramblers, to name a few.
[6] As of March 8, 2023, A total of 64 TV shows were produced and recorded over 150 musicians for a collection for the Folklife archives at The Library of Congress.
The shows aired all over Virginia and in NC, PA, OH, WV, MD, KY, IW, IL and Maine.
In 1971, DePoy founded the North Mountain Ramblers, a musical group featuring Herb Smoke (who was recorded by Alan Lomax in 1940).
In 2000, she first heard DePoy perform in a band in Belfast, Maine and "felt her life change in a matter of measures."
Me & Martha see themselves as keepers of the flame of Americana rural roots mountain music, which includes American fiddle/banjo traditions, old-time string band, sea shanties, work songs, hillbilly, traditional and classic country, bluegrass, rural swing, and contemporary folk ballads.
In 2012, they played 212 concerts, hosted 34 weekly Tuesday night bluegrass jams at James Madison University, participated in a number of community service events, and worked tirelessly on the Shenandoah Music Trail, an organization they founded.
[14] DePoy graduated from Blue Ridge Community College in Weyers Cave, Virginia with an A.S. degree in Education in June 1970.
During the same period, he served at Husson College as graduate and undergraduate adjunct faculty, teaching courses in social science, marketing/public relations, and communication technology.
DePoy and his wife organized the nonprofit Shenandoah Music Trail, which maps out different major venues, trail stops, historic locations, festivals and jam sessions from Winchester down to Roanoke focusing on bluegrass, old-time string band, blues, rural swing, and classic country music.
The Shenandoah Music Trail is sponsored in part by the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the National Council for the Arts, and Virginia Tourism Corporation — to promote the Shenandoah Valley’s musicians, historical events, festivals, and live music venues.
As Hill states, "It is here diversity of talents and gifts are not only invited but encouraged through fellowship and bluegrass music."
DePoy served as executive director (1993–1997) for F.O.L.K., Inc. (Focus On Local Knowledge) a 501-C-3 not-for-profit corporation chartered to support preservation, dissemination, and education of folk practices, specifically relating to performance and visual arts.
Me & Martha CDs comprise: In addition to performance in thousands of live shows,[23] club, house concerts, festival performances, and workshops throughout the United States (1959 – present), DePoy appearances include: In 1979, DePoy worked in New York City as a design engineer with international design and consulting firm Hubert Wilke, Inc., commuting by train two and a half hours each way to Yardley, Pennsylvania.
He also published Auntie M's Guide for Bargain Hunters, a bi-monthly publication with a circulation of 10,000 copies distributed throughout the greater Bangor, Maine region.
