Union Pacific Band



Bios of the Players

Dave Donahoe – Lead guitar, vocals

Dave grew up surrounded by music. His mother was a musician and choir director and his father sang as well. Dave and his brother each had their own ukulele at a young age and learned to play and sing along.

Dave began playing acoustic guitar at 15. Hiis inspiration was early rock and roll & R&B pioneers, particularly Chuck Berry and Little Richard, along with many others, plus an early and continued love of Blues after hearing Jimmy Reed's haunting guitar, harmonica and vocals.

He joined three bands while in college in Utah, with each band cutting a 45 rpm record (5 of 6 cuts recently found for sale on the web in 60's compilation CDs). The last of these 45's was with the Todes and was a top 5 hit in Utah and a chart hit in several western states.

 

He played in LA on the Sunset Strip in the summers and recorded in two LA Studios.

After college, Dave returned to Richmond where he hooked up with a National Guard buddy and formed a duo. This quickly grew into a four piece band known as Linny, Dave and Company.

Linny, Dave and Company had several different bass players and drummers over the next four years until finally evolving into the Union Pacific Band. UPB became a well known, high-profile East Coast Entertainment band, working extensively at Virginia colleges with a truck full of equipment and a three person road crew. Family and work demands ended this in 1982 and Dave intended to do a duo. Instead, Nite Flite, another five piece “in demand” band resulted, but in 1987 Dave needed to reduce band time demands again, so Nite Flite ended.

But Dave didn't retire, as he played church gigs with friends for a couple of years, and then two former members of Nite Flite joined Dave and his friends to form the Jukebox Brothers. They played regularly in the early and mid 1990’s, and still play occasionally.

Dave Donahoe

 

The year is 1995, as fate intervenes, the Satisfaction band was formed by Dave and Ray Wilkerson. Satisfaction was a “one bar” band until, one by one, the original members of UPB started to resurface, and in 2005, UPB was re-formed.

Dave's musical endeavors include many years of participation with his wife in a traveling church choir and accoustic guitar accompaniment for his wife, daughter or son in their vocal solo performances.

“Music is invigorating, creative and renewing and live performance can be magical” claims Dave. "R&R bands have also blessed me with the immeasurable PLUS of decades of close friendships in a brotherhood of great people.

This must be why he refuses to retire that guitar!

 

All Rights Reserved, 2008 © Union Pacific Band