Depue De Hoyos

Looking at a song list that contains covers of "Stairway to Heaven" and "Dust in the Wind," you wonder whether violinist Alex DePue and guitarist Miguel De Hoyos couldn't have come up with a more original way to show off their considerable skills. But much like the New Age duo of Willie & Lobo, DePue/De Hoyos play with such disarming enthusiasm and consummate skill that even such stale war horses as "Hotel California" and Billy Joel's "The Stranger" are a pleasant listen in their hands.

And they inject a huge streak of Latin fire into everything they play, with both Spanish flamenco and South American influences abounding, that for much of "Black Magic Woman" the theme is unrecognizable. Similiarly, "The Stranger" opens not with Joel's too-familiar theme, but with a riff from a transitional passage in the song. And on the Mexican standard "La Bamba," DePue takes the opening on violin, giving it a different approach than most arrangements which have the riff played on guitar.

The combination of rearranging popular tunes and the virtuosic playing of the two men gives most of the songs a freshness few of them have enjoyed in years.

DePue & De Hoyos perform Nov. 16 at the Beach Club Grille in Imperial Beach; and Nov. 19 at Carlsbad High School. - North County Times

Daring fiddler Alex DePue is hard to categorize

By Andrew McGinn

Staff Writer

Thursday, November 06, 2008

SPRINGFIELD - It must've really stung that a guy from Ohio was the Michigan state fiddle champion for a good swath of the 1990s.

Then again, there's really no other way to describe the fiddling of Alex DePue -- it stings.

More than a million people already have watched him on YouTube, wailing away on the Yes tune "Owner of a Lonely Heart" and Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" at an open-mic night in San Diego.

What were you expecting, "Orange Blossom Special"?

He toured the world last year with guitar daredevil Steve Vai.

DePue's latest endeavor brings him to Kuss Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 13 as part of Clark State's intimate Club Kuss series.

The progressive fiddler has found a collaborator in Mexican classical guitarist Miguel De Hoyos.

In June, they released the album "Underground Whispers," which covers everything from "Stairway to Heaven" to "All I Ask." (Yeah, Led Zeppelin and "The Phantom of the Opera," respectively.)

While he's been ranked one of the 10 best fiddlers in the nation, DePue hasn't forgotten his instrument's earthy roots — he was in country singer Chris Cagle's band from 2000 to 2006.

How to go

Who: Alex DePue and Miguel De Hoyos

When: 7:30 p.m. Nov. 13

Where: Kuss Auditorium

Tickets: $20 and $25; go to pac.clarkstate.edu or call (937) 328-3874 - Springfield News-Sun

INTO VIEW
Two minutes of fame on YouTube ...
... multiplied by a million or so hits lands violinist Alex DePue a shot at stardom
By George Varga
UNION-TRIBUNE POP MUSIC CRITIC
June 17, 2007
Violin virtuoso Alex DePue has distinguished himself in country, bluegrass, rock, swing and classical music, with his Carnegie Hall debut coming when he was just 14. But this Ohio-born, Rancho Santa Fe-based musician's national profile really took off after he played an open mic night Nov. 11 at Lestat's, the tiny Normal Heights venue that has a seating capacity of just 50.
His classically-tinged solo violin medley of “Owner of a Lonely Heart” by the English prog-rock band Yes and Michael Jackson's “Smooth Criminal” was filmed at Lestat's by Chris Richards, his friend and manager. Richards posted the barely two-minute clip on YouTube three days later, and the response was dizzying.
“It got 80,000 hits in the first week,” a still incredulous DePue recalled last week. “Now, it's up to over 781,000 hits on YouTube alone. If you include the other Web sites that have posted it, like break.com and iFilm.com, and add them up, we've had 1.5 million viewings.”
One of those viewings came last month in the Los Angeles management office of rock guitar star Steve Vai, who was then auditioning violinists for his new touring band.
Vai rose to fame in Frank Zappa's group in the early 1980s, then worked with everyone from Joe Jackson and David Lee Roth to Ry Cooder and Tony Williams. On the basis of his YouTube video, DePue was invited to audition after he learned three Vai compositions, including the violin feature “Sparks and Shadows.”
DePue,34, got the gig. He begins a monthlong European tour with Vai June 28 in Luxembourg, followed by a two-month North American concert trek that includes a Sept. 10 date in Alpine.
“The rehearsals are very demanding and very rewarding,” DePue said from a Burbank soundstage, where he has been preparing for the tour under Vai's strict supervision. “It's a 21/2-hour show and we rehearse at least nine hours a day, six days a week. And I spend three to four hours rehearsing by myself each day before I even show up for the band rehearsals with Steve. I'm learning so much from him.”
Vai is a stern taskmaster, but DePue welcomes the challenge. One of four violin-playing sons of a concert pianist mother and classical music professor father, he was only 10 when he won a concerto competition and performed with the Bowling Green State University Orchestra.
He discovered rock music the same year, thanks to one of his mother's Beach Boys' albums, then became enamored with bluegrass and the work of French jazz violin pioneer Stephane Grappelli. His diverse tastes are showcased on his self-produced 12-song “Live” album, which features him performing everything from “A Maiden's Prayer” by Western Swing legend Bob Wills and a traditional Hungarian folk-dance number to a jazzy version of “Mr. Sandman” and a quicksilver excerpt from Beethoven's Violin Concerto.
Beginning in 2000, DePue spent six years in Nashville as the musical director in country singer Chris Cagle's band. In 1999 and 2005, he won first place in the Walnut Valley National Fiddling Contest in Kansas. Earlier this year, he won first place in the California State Old Time Fiddlers Association's annual competition.
Lured by the weather, DePue moved to San Diego last fall, with a suitcase in one hand and his violin case in the other. Nearly broke, he quickly took matters into his own hands.
“I put on my wrinkled tuxedo and went up and down Fifth Avenue in the Gaslamp Quarter, shaking hands with restaurant owners, until this wonderful Italian man let me come into Asti Ristorante and play for his customers for tips,” DePue recalled. “On a good night, along with CD sales, you can do very well just playing for tips.”
The pending tour with Vai will introduce him to an international audience beyond YouTube, and DePue hopes to work with the guitarist indefinitely. As for his future goals, he has a glittery vision.
“I'd be very comfortable in Las Vegas doing a 'violin freak show,' ” DePue said. “Every single style possible on the instrument would be exposed during the show so I could bridge the gap between people who are fans of only one style. I would also involve elements of magic and illusion. I've always had this dream where, in the middle of a slow, sexy, swing song, I let go of my silver bow and watch it float up in the air around me, with no visible strings attached.”

- San Diego Union-Tribune

Alex DePue releases CD, plans Toledo show Print
Written by Sentinel Staff
Thursday, 02 October 2008

Fiddler Aex DePue has teamed up with Mexican guitar master Miguel De Hoyos on a new CD "Underground Whispers."
The self-produced session features the two duetting on the varied repertoire. It ranges from originals including DePue's on "TJ" and De Hoyos' "Cortijo" with covers of rock, Latin and pop tunes including a medley from "Phantom of the Opera" to a the rock anthem "Stairway to Heaven."
Now based in southern California, DePue's most recently toured with rock virtuoso Steve Vai's band.
Videos of his work on YouTube have scored thousands of hits.
DePue and De Hoyos will feature work from the CD in a concert on Dec. 27 at 7:30 p.m. in the Stranahan Theater in Toledo.
Tickets are available at ticketmaster.com .
Copies of the CD are available at Finder's in downtown Bowling Green.
On the Web:
www.myspace.com/depuedehoyos - Sentinel-Tribune

Word has blown down to Los Cabos from Los Barrilles of the buzz surrounding two of their fine and talented residents, fiddle player Alex DePue and flamenco guitarist Miguel de Hoyos. The two perform an engaging and often virtuostic combination of classical-tinted takes on popular songs and original compositions, their cohesion and chops often remarkable. DePue's resume and endless list of awards and competition victories, along with the crossover appeal of the duo's repertoire, performing medleys of tunes like "Stairway To Heaven", "Dust In The Wind", and "Hotel California" have left the crowds of our ever humble beach towns demanding more. Alex sports a career of performances with some of the world's finest musicians and symphonies, coming from a successful family of musicians and having been competing since the age of 10. Guitarist Miguel De Hoyos, originally of Monterrey, is a celebrated performer and composer throughout Mexico. Coming from a musical family as well, Miguel met Alex here in the Baja and the two enjoyed playing together enough to convince Alex to come down and relocate for a while. The results are ours to enjoy.
- Gringo Gazette - Todd Clouser