An excerpt from Magnet's interview with Winston-Salem natives Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey of The dB's:

Chris and I both went to the same elementary school in Winston-Salem. I remember seeing him waiting to get picked up in the parking lot with his viola case. He and Mitch were in the same class. I was in the same class with Will (Rigby). It was an interesting group of people who grew up together for years and years. I was 12 and Chris was 13. I was a little bit in awe of him because he was really close pals with Mitch. Their moms were even close. And Mitch was a total guitar god, even then. He was playing in a cocktail band somewhere. Chris had gotten into recording. I remember standing with him in the R.J. Reynolds High School auditorium pit, recording another band called Rittenhouse Square with Mitch, the predecessor version to the one we were in. It was a who’s-who of great players in Winston-Salem and one of those moments when you make a connection between what the local band was doing and what the Beatles were doing. It may have been disparate, but I kind of got the feeling from watching that that it was obtainable.

Here's a link to a 2002 story about the 80s' power pop era to which The dB's belonged.