The Trans-Fatty Playboys are in a state of suspended animation -- Kyle got a job in Lansing Michigan, so we are currently short a member. If you play banjo, guitar and / or lap steel and like to sing, you live in the Athens area, and you aren't particularly ambitious, send us an e mail.
The Trans-Fatty Playboys have played in several venues around Athens including the Flicker, the Eastwood Pub, the Southworks festival in Watkinsville, Athens 441, the North Georgia Folk Festival, and dances for the Athens Folk Music and Dance Society.
Joe Willey: fiddle, electric and acoustic guitars, banjo, harmonica, concertina, vocals, song writing
Joe started playing the banjo when he was fifteen years old. His parents had an 8 track tape of Earl Scruggs playing Dueling Banjos -- it did something to his brain, and he's never been the same since. Joe started with Scruggs style banjo, and expanded from there to harmonica, acoustic and electric guitars, fiddle, and concertina. His fiddle once belonged to his great grandfather, Joseph Elbert Dillworth, who played the fiddle at barn dances in the Oklahoma territory.
Ed Dowling: Drum Kit, Dumbek, National Steel guitar
Ed Dowling has recently started playing with us. He used to play with a local band called Swing Street, which had John James on sax and Rob Carter on bass, I believe. Ed is an excellent jazz drummer who has gotten interested in folk music, and he is also a
really good fingerstyle guitarist, with John Fahey being his primary inspiration.
Russell Tackett: Electric Bass, Rhythm Guitar
Russell Tackett is playing electric bass and acoustic rhythm guitar for us. Russell and his wife recently moved here from California. They are both speech therapists in the Clarke County school system.
