It’s 2024 and The Taters head into our 27th year!
Adding shows to the calendar every week, and who knows what other projects will surface? Last year saw the 20th anniversary of “Recess“, our very first studio album, as well as show all over the Central Virginia area, finishing off with a Monkees tribute and two sell-out holiday shows to spotlight our SHINY & BRITE CD!
As always, you can find out information about our shows and music here on the site, and on our Facebook page. Our music is available on CD or download over at our Bandcamp page, where you can find not only our “official” albums, but also several non-released selections and songs that we’ve included on various tribute albums. You can also add us to your playlists in Apple Music, Spotify, and Amazon Music, so you never have to be too far from Taterland!
New merch and recordings!
In the past few months we’ve opened a new merchandise shop over at TeePublic with shirts, mugs & more from we Taters as well as our sugary stepchild The Super Sugar Beats. More designs to come!
We’ve also uploaded a few “pay what you will” Tater rarities over on the Bandcamp page, so if you haven’t been there in awhile, now’s a good time to visit!
“The Taters soar through a catalog of Americana and ’60s-era pop influences”
The Taters play an eclectic mix of roots rock, pop, country, skiffle & Americana, a sound that’s been compared favorably to a mixture of Everlys, Orbison, Beatles, and Nick Lowe. Writing in Billboard Magazine, critic Gordon Ely described the Taters as “determinedly-and gleefully-forging a path with no limits or end in sight. This is music for which you’ve been waiting a long, long time… Without a trace of self-consciousness or pretension, the Taters draw up a formula that can rightly be claimed as their own”.
Add us to your Apple Music playlists!
Our most recent releases are the Christmas & Halloween CDs, both available on disc or downloads, along with all the Tater music at our Bandcamp site!
| Some Tater Talk… | |
|---|---|
| “Don’t know the Taters? Pick up Taters Party to start, and then dive into the back catalog. You won’t be sorry”– Alan Haber, Pure Pop Radio “The crowd cheered, people danced, they absolutely saved our event!” – Ron Carter. CEO, Children Incorporated | “Think ‘Beatles For Sale’, if Marty Robbins were a primary influence instead of Carl Perkins “- No Depression Magazine “Picture ELO gone Americana, and you’ll get the idea” – Mike Lidskin, TWIRL Radio “We can’t think of any group we would rather present on our stage” – Lou Gramann, Friends of the Rappahannock |
“…That’s 20 years of musical virtuosity, perfect harmonies, tight instrumentation, cosmic song juxtaposition, and outright joyful silliness. Craig Evans and Brad Tucker started it all, adding old friend Greg Marrs and Chris Mendez along the way and perfecting a sound that’s unmistakably Tater-fied and consistently surprising. Elizabeth Cotten to Led Zeppelin to Ledbelly to Dean Martin all in one set. It goes to show you never can tell.” – North of the James, Anne Jones
The last few years have included 2 shows with The Richmond Symphony, the start of a new live recording, tributes to The Everly Brothers, and The Bee Gees (in full costume and hair!), a show where we performed the entire Beatle’s “HELP” album, and Halloween show tribute to The Twilight Zone, where the stage and band were all in classic black & white! We constantly gravitate toward things we’ve never tried and it helps keep things fresh.
We’ve already performed as The Statler Brothers in a tribute to the Johnny Cash Folsom Prison & San Quentin shows (with NC friends the Johnny Folsom 4). Ove the years, we’ve also regularly had various side projects going on, such as the Rock & Roll Jubilee, where Craig & Brad perform tributes to Elvis, Roy Orbison, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly & Ricky Nelson.
A current labor of love is The Super Sugar Beats, a group of gumbros dedicated to playing SuperElasticBubblePlastic Pop & Bubblegum music! A sugary step-child of The Taters, Diamond Heist, The Wayward Bills, Hazeltone, and several other local area bands, we play music we grew up on, and we do our Saturday-Morning best to keep Bubblegum & Sunshine Pop hopping in the 21st century! Influences include The Partridge Family, The Archies, Bay City Rollers, The Monkees, Banana Splits, 1910 Fruitgum Company, Bobby Sherman, Ohio Express, Brady Bunch, The Cufflinks, Tommy James, Royal Guardsmen, The Cattanooga Cats, The Groovie Ghoulies, Sweet, and so much more! You can “Like” The Taters and The Super Sugar Beats on Facebook for updates! Can’t tell you what’s coming next, ’cause we don’t know ourselves, but it will be fun!
| “The connection between singer-bassist Craig Evans and guitarist Brad Tucker goes back more than 20 years. That kind of knowledge and interplay is responsible for the crisp harmonies and infectious hooks of the band’s old school roots-pop”- Durham Herald-Sun“Country roots-pop, dashed with the genius songwriting of 60’s & 70’s power-pop, like a curious, accidental mix of the Mavericks, the Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison and the Beatles” – CD Baby |