Donley's Music

This color combo is EVERYTHING & we are lovin’ it ✨✨ -> Fender Squier telecaster, contemporary w/ Dylan pick ups $550

Gear & repair for dayzzzz - We have some fantastic repairmen here @ Donleys and we’d love to get you set up for your lessons, at home jam sessions or next on stage performance!

Today is National Dog Day so I thought that I’d show off our awesome pups. Buck and Gracie are the cutest yellow Lab siblings. They are adjusting to a little different life but we will get through this together.

“Music can heal the wounds that medicine cannot touch”

What are we all listening to this week? Comment below 👇🏼

Martin X series special w/ fishman electronics $549 ~ Madagascar ebony 🎶🎶 Come in this week and test it out

The Story of Us

I can on thank our Family, Friends and Community enough for the overwhelming outpouring of Love, Generosity and Support that you all have given myself and my family during this difficult time.

Dave was kind and generous to all and gave to others (who doesn’t want that in a significant other). His larger than life sense of humor is what reeled me in. We had so many laughs!

Dave was born to a young married couple (Jack and Hazel) in Dayton , Ohio on July 25 of 1967. He had a big sister, Teresa that who he looked up to . Seven years later Jennifer came along and completed their family. Dave had a good childhood. Jack worked really hard to support their family and Hazel was a blue to stay at home and raise the family. They had a very strong family bond. (One of the things that drew me to him). When they lived in Kettering Ohio for some reason the Burford Boys from across the street decided to pick on Dave. There were 4 of them (all their names started with a ‘B’). He always told me the stories of how after school every day they would beat him up. When they moved to Georgia in 1980, Dave got it in his head that that was never going to happen to him again. So, he started working out and working on his self confidence. Before long, Dave was one of the biggest, strongest guys at Sprayberry High School. I kind of feel sorry for the first guy that tried to pick a fight with him. He Let Him Have It! Of course he got in BIG trouble but no one messed with Dave after that.

I knew Dave was special from the moment I met him. We met at his dad’s McDonalds where I got a job there when I was 16. I always tell the story that Jack (Dave’s dad) and his sister Jenny were music students at my dad’s store. One day I walked in and announced to my dad that “I was bored”. Jack happened to be standing at the front counter and said, “I’ll give you a job”. I wasn’t too keen on the idea of working in fast food but with some encouragement from my parents, I went and put in my application. I started work a week or two later. He always told the story that I dated his friends first then he got me for the long run. We were High School sweethearts. We went to Homecomings and Proms together. After high school, Dave was going to follow in his dad’s footsteps and work in’s way up the ladder to own his own McDonald’s. My mom told me that I couldn’t just be a full time girlfriend, so I went to school to learn how to become an administrative assistant. We got engaged a short time later and married in 1988. For some reason, the music industry caught Daves interest. He started hanging around my dad’s store and ended up leaving McDonald’s to work for my dad at Jennings Music. After I graduated, I worked there as well.
Dave learned all the ins and outs of the music business and soon my dad trusted him enough to basically run Jennings Music while I did all the work on the back end in the office helping run the largest music lesson program in the south and keeping up with the daily things.

We were lucky enough to actually have my girls while we both worked there. With help from my dad, we were able to bring them to work with us some and be together. When the girls were young, Dave’s mom Hazel would watch them during the day and my mom would help with them after she got home from work. We always considered ourselves truly blessed that our kids got to have such an amazing childhood. Going from grandparents to grandparents homes, being able to play with and grow up with cousins and being raised by the family village!

In 1996 Dave decided to open the first Donley’s Music. He found this space at the corner of Bell’s Ferry and Hwy 92. There was a bit of controversy between Dave and my dad during this time but in the long run I believe that it all worked out for the best. Dave did well until the “big box” music stores came into town and he ended up closing. He did a couple other things to make money (selling Herbalife and going to work for Roxanne) but the music business was still in his blood and he came back to work at Jennings Music.

We moved to Holly Springs in 2004 and Dave was able to open Donley’s Music again in Holly Springs just a year or two later. He started a bluegrass jam every Thursday night and met some of the best people that are still customers and friends to this day.

He eventually moved the store to Hickory Flat and that is where he felt that he was truly a part of the community where we lived.

Don’t get me wrong, he did have some flaws. He was extremely stubborn (drove me crazy sometimes), was stuck in his ways (once he got something in his head, there was NO changing his mind) and he NEVER made the bed! His philosophy was that he was always the most comfortable when he woke up so why not just slide back in bed at night with the covers just like they were (that never really worked for me) so I would come home from work and make the bed, just to turn down the covers a couple hours later (I was always up before him and usually out the door before he opened his eyes).

Dave LIVED. He lived like no one I have ever met. He stuck to his morals and values, never wavering. Sometimes I’d try to change his mind on something I thought that he was being stubborn about but I’m telling you, it really never worked. Dave lived for his business. He knew that he was the luckiest man being able to have a successful business that he loved going to every day to work with friends and help the best customers and hopefully inspire people to pursue their dreams and bring music into their life. He also knew that he was lucky that he was able to live in the same community where his business was. You see, Dave HATED traffic and driving just 2 miles to work every day was pretty much all the traffic he could stand. (The people at his store called him 2 mile Dave). He lived, worked and did most of his business within the 2 mile radius from home to the store. Although a lot of you think he lived for the music business, he actually lived to fish. One day when we were teenagers and there were no cell phones or pagers, I called his parent’s house to talk to Dave. His dad answered the phone and told me “Jackie, fishing will ALWAYS be his first love.” I eventually learned to accept that and we just moved on from there. If you were lucky enough be at his funeral service then you know how many people’s lives he touched through music and through fishing.

Dave LOVED! Our family has been told by so many that “your family is different than most.” Not just our immediate family but the extended family of Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and those of you who were kind of adopted into our family. Although we may not see eye to eye all the time, we have a close unwavering bond. We celebrate the big and the little things, we gather for holidays and gather just to have time together. Dave loved you ALL like there was no tomorrow. Dave LOVED his girls. He was so proud that we raised them to be strong, independent women. He was so happy and thankful that they both found love in their lives a were thriving. Dave LOVED me. I know that I am the luckiest girl to have the love he gave me. You see, fishing really wasn’t his first love, it was me. I know this because those are the last words he said to me. I LOVE YOU!

This is the last picture on my phone of us together. It was the 4th of July and we went for a ride in the Jeep up to Amy’s shop for some breakfast then to the local vegetable stand in East Cherokee to get some fresh tomatoes for the burgers that we were gonna have that night with the kids and some friends to celebrate Independence Day. It was just a good relaxing time. Time that I will cherish forever.

There were so many comments on social media and messages to our whole family on how Dave touched peoples lives (I knew about a lot of it but learned even more about how giving he was). I’m so proud to call him my husband! He gave to those in need and showed love to everyone he touched. Please share this story and try to pay it forward and live a little like Dave!

Words will never express the amount of gratitude we have for our family, friends, and community. The last few days have been amazingly difficult, as the days and weeks ahead will be. There is no doubt in my mind that the prayers and love are what pulled us through these difficult days. We are forever grateful.
We will press forward slowly, day by day, but not without your continued support. Please continue to pray for us in the coming weeks as we learn what the new “normal” looks like, the new day to day, without our captain at the helm.
We will never replace Dave Donley, nor will we ever try. We will honor him everyday in the way we conduct our daily business, both personally and professionally. The shoes left behind can never be filled, but we can walk by faith in our own shoes, in the foot steps on the path Dave Donley blazed for us all.

Donley’s Music will be open and conducting business as close to normal as we can. I encourage all of our friends to continue to come visit with us all, as we adjust to our new day to day. Dave would want us to continue to make an impact in anyway that we can. To help one another. To love one another.
Donley’s Music is much more than just a store, it is a family. We pray that our family will continue to grow, and flourish as it has for the last 30 years.

Thank you all. We love you all. Please stop by and tell us a good Dave Donley story.

God Bless

-Josh & Amy Hollifield, Jackie & Sarah Donley, and the rest of the Donley’s Music Family. 👍🏻🇺🇸

Arrangements are as follows:

Monday, August 12

Visitation and Service will be held at:

Hickory Flat Fellowship Church
5301 Hickory Flat Hwy
Canton, GA 30115

Visitation 1:00pm - 3:00pm
Service will begin at 3:00pm

The family will have a private service at the cemetery at a later date for internment.

In lieu of flowers, you may make a donation to Wounded Warrior Project or the American Cancer Society in honor of Dave’s sister, Teresa.

Any flowers will be donated to the church and surrounding nursing homes following the service.

Thank you all for your love and support of our family.

1982 Fender Rhodes 73 🎹 👉🏼 message us for details & price

#2024

Summer vibe: acoustics + porch sittin’ 🙌🏽

Come check out some of our new goods! Perfect for your summer time jams ☀️

Guitar, banjo & bass players 🚨 CALL TODAY 🚨

Donley's Music Est. 1994 Largest music school in Cherokee county Lessons | new & used instruments | repair

Sign up today -> 678.880.8783 ~ summer spaces are going fast

#2024

Donley's Music Est. 1994 Largest music school in Cherokee county Lessons | new & used instruments | repair

ISO: Guitar and drum teachers 🥁 🎸
Must have teaching experience. Let us manage your schedule & payments. Drama free atmosphere. Growing area w/ great students

Interested?? Talk to Dave 678.880.8783

Donley's Music Est. 1994 Largest music school in Cherokee county Lessons | new & used instruments | repair

DEAL OF THE WEEK: $650 for the package
•Black Star cabinet limited addition HT-112W
•Paul Reed Smith MT15

It’s all in the details 🌀 Washburn D13S $299

Just look at that gorgeous wood grain!
LTD 6 string bass $475

We are loving this show stopping color combo 💙🖤 D’Angelico Premier Bedford series w/ case $450

Just another manic Monday 😵‍💫🤘🏼 come on in and see us

✨ If your looking for a sign… this is it ✨ Gold Tone EBM-5 banjo 🪕 maple neck, rosewood fretboard, single coil pickup, snowflake fretboard inlays & humbucker beneath the head - $1150 w/ hard shell case

Tagima TW-55 in a beautiful antique butterscotch tone 🤌🏼 $329
Mention this ad and get a free Donleys gig bag with purchase

Isn’t she lovely -> Guild surfliner $499 🏄🏼‍♀️

#2024

Where vintage vibes meet modern groove 🎶 Gibson 2019 EB4 bass

It’s almost the weekend!! 🤟🤟

Have you tried any of the new teas from our 2024 NEW MENU??

Here’s one of our new faves- 🍋WAR HEAD 🍋
——
All of our energy teas have ZERO CALORIES and gives you CLEAN ENERGY with no 💥 🔋 to get you thru your day.

Come see us!
8014 Cu***ng Highway Canton GA 30115 suit 405

Rockin’ into the new year 🎶
We’d love to get you set up for your new hobby in 2024 -> lesson schedules are now open!

🚨 We have different hours this week 🚨
Come in and see us this week! We’re ready to get your geared up for new year

Merry Christmas from the Donleys ~ may you have the gladness of Christmas which is hope; the spirit of Christmas which is peace; the heart of Christmas which is love.

Open till 3pm today! Come see us for all of your last minute Christmas needs ❄️

Just because it’s Christmas Eve doesn’t mean you can’t get a rockin’ gift! We’ll be open from 10-3
Stop in and see us 🎄🎅🏼

-> Guitars, keyboards, basses, banjos, amps, mandolins, accessories, pedals, drums & much more