The Tan and Sober Gentlemen is a six-piece band from the Piedmont of North Carolina who fuse together the traditional sounds of an old time string band with the late night revelry of an Irish pub. Their raucous set closed down the StreetFest portion of IBMA Bluegrass Live powered by PNC in 2023.
“The best thing about Tan and Sober is their interplay with one another and the band’s solos,” writes Tom Beck for his blog Jam and Toast. “Every single musician in the band, and there are a lot of them, gives it their all and the band looks as if they had all run a marathon when they are done with a show. This band is one of the great performance bands ever.”
The band formed in 2017 out of the remnants of several Raleigh area Celtic bands. They’ve since toured much of the US and Ireland. The self-described Celtic/Punk band has released two full-length records Veracity and Regressive Folk Music.
The Irish Examiner wrote that their live show is “…the best craic ever. Safe to say, next time they’re around we’re bringing our dancing shoes.”
Ireland Calling described the band as “…fast paced, toe-tapping, fiddle-playing musical mayhem, certainly worth a look to any fans of Irish music.”
The current line-up is Courtney Barefoot (guitar/vocals), Alan Best (mandolin/accordion), Tucker Galloway (banjo), Eli Howells (fiddle), Ben Noblit (bass) and Jake Waits (drums).
