Member Profile

Donny Carpenter loves to fiddle! The violin player and vocalist takes pride in having grown up in and around Muscle Shoals, Alabama and gives credit, primarily, to the influence of the music and musicians of the Muscle Shoals area for the way he plays. He began learning to play the fiddle, an instrument he considers to be an extension of his very heart and soul, at the age of 10, after a few years of begging his parents for “one of those little guitars they play with a stick.” After taking basic instruction and invaluable tips from local greats Larry McWilliams and Al Lester, fiddler conventions and bluegrass festivals with Bell Terry & "The Alabama Grass" gave Donny the experience he needed to begin working with local nightclub bands. Over the years, he’s kept himself active in various recording studios and other venues around the southeast. Among a few others, you may find Donny’s credit on Jerry Reed’s album The Bird, recorded at Fame Recording Studio in Muscle Shoals where, at age 17, the humbled fiddler was given the opportunity to play on three tracks including the hit single Down on the Corner. Donny’s skills have been featured on countless song demos by some of the industry’s most successful writers and producers and he has performed at venues in Canada and all across the United States including famous landmarks The Grand Ole Opry and Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN and Buck Owens' Crystal Palace in Bakersfield, CA. He has performed for Fox News Channel in New York with Mike Curtis and friends and has toured with artists Blake Shelton, Rebecca Lynn Howard, Heartland and the very comical Birmingham, AL-based group Three On a String. Donny has performed live also with Collin Raye, Ricky Skaggs, Bryan White, Lonestar lead vocalist (& solo artist) Richie McDonald, Ken Mellons, Billy Yates, Briana Dean, James LeBlanc, Gary Nichols, Angela Hacker, Paul Thorn, Zach Hacker, Marty Raybon, Lenny LeBlanc, Linda Davis, 3 Lanes Crossing, Billy Ryan, Billy Lawson, Mark Collie, Daron Norwood, Alabama members Teddy Gentry & Jeff Cook and the Grammy award-winning group Shenandoah (known for 13 #1 hits!). In addition, Donny is the featured violinist on a recent album from Collin Raye and, more recently, on the Paul Thorn album, Pimps and Preachers, for which he was given the honor of performing on Thorn's beautiful song Ray Ann's Shoes. He remains a go-to recording studio professional in his region and proudly performs regularly with Jim Seales and Mitchell Curtis as “3 Wheel Drive” featured weekly at FloBama Music Hall in Florence, AL Thursday evenings from 6:30 to 9:30.