Lead Vocals & Guitar

The granddaughter of Johnston County fiddler Herman Raynor, Courtney Raynor Barefoot was in love with music from an early age. Swinging her legs and singing along to .38 Special in her dad’s black Silverado introduced her to classic rock and the blues, while her grandmother took her to country music shows at every opportunity. Courtney soon followed her Papa’s footsteps and picked up the six-string. In a little yellow office, learning from the biggest man she’d ever met, Courtney spent seven years honing her craft on the guitar. She got her a degree in music education from Campbell University on a pole-vaulting scholarship. Since then, Courtney has been teaching in public schools (and privately) while performing in bands across the South. About five years ago, she met a band that played something called Celtic punk-grass, and it’s been all downhill from there.

Mandolin, Accordion & Whistle

From Durham County, North Carolina, Alan Best was born into a multi-generational folk dancing family. Some of his earliest memories are of local folk dances, anything from squares, contras, English folk dances, and Morris dancing to simply falling asleep in an old couch chair at a barn dance. Alan started on fiddle at a young age, fell in love with the accordion at age 12, and picked up the mandolin and tin whistle a little while later. He loves nothing more than dancing and playing music that gets your feet moving.

Lead Vocals & Banjo

From Alamance County, North Carolina, Tucker Jackson Galloway, born into a family that hosts one of the country’s longest running barn dances, acquired his first banjo at the tender age of 14. He played in his family’s band, learning to sing harmony from his mother and grandmother, while also singing in choir. When he was 18, Tucker moved to Boone, helping form a band called Dr. Bacon. Since then, he has been on the road, playing with Bacon, various bluegrass bands with the likes of Adam Lawrence and Steven Davidson, and, since 2016, with the Tan and Sober Gentlemen. In addition to singing and picking banjo with Tan and Sober, Tucker is also a studio musician with Sonark Media, and a member of singer-wongwriter Jesse Fox’s backing band.

Violin

From Burke County, North Carolina, Eli Howells began playing music at the age of 8. By the time of this writing, he is both a classically trained violinist and a Scotch-Irish fiddler of ill repute. He studied traditional Scottish and Irish fiddle with the legendary Jane Macmorren, and played in the All-State Symphony in high school (where he was repeatedly told to “slow down and stop dancing”). With his blend of Scotch-Irish and classical music, he helped form the band Morning Brigade, with whom he toured with until joining Tan and Sober in 2016. He also gets people dancing with the likes of folk dance band Lagomorph Quartet and Jesse Fox, and also maintains a private teaching studio in Carrboro, NC. Eli has appeared on the Country Music Channel, in the New York Times, and tries to avoid making deals at the crossroads near midnight.

www.elihowellsviolin.com

Bass

Best friends since the age of six, Alan Best and Ben Noblit grew up in Durham and Alamance Counties, respectively. The son of old-time bass player George Noblit, Ben was immersed in the tradition from the very beginning. He spent his childhood summers in Knott County, KY, sitting at the feet of folks like Jean Ritchie, Lee Sexton, Marion Sumner, and Rich Kirby as they picked. Ben picked up the bass as soon as he could hold it, learned to slap it from Ruth McClain, and honed his trade at the bluegrass jams of Alamance and Chatham Counties, along with every fiddlers convention he could bum a ride to. During a chance visit to the Tir Na nOg Irish pub in Raleigh when Ben was 21, he met Annie Britton, Gerry McCrudden, and James Olin Oden, who took him under their collective wing, teaching him Irish music and reconnecting him with the influence of his mother’s side of the family. Five years later, he formed the Tan and Sober Gentlemen.

Drummer

From Scotland County, North Carolina, Jake Waits has been playing drums since the 1990s. He got his start on his older cousin's kit, by sneaking into the basement during holiday visits and stealthily learning how to beat Queen's "We Will Rock You" with brushes. Unconvinced there existed a worthier pursuit than music, he began to study percussion in his sixth grade concert band. His studies have since forayed into styles and techniques like rock, jazz, funk, folk, blues, metal, various hand-drumming, rudimental marching percussion, classical percussion and musical theater.

Ex-Singer

From Durham County, North Carolina, William Maltbie has been playing music for as long as he can remember. The little brother of Chapel Hill musician Andrew Maltbie (Family Dollar Pharaohs, Zen Frisbee, Dexter Romweber Trio) William had developed his love of artists like the Pogues, Johnny Cash, Blind Willie McTell, and the Kinks by his teenage years, and started a high school band with Ben. William stopped touring with the band in 2019 to focus on his growing family, but he hasn’t gone away, you know.