The Core

The seed was planted at an Eddie's Attic show in 2011. Bill Taylor and The Bitteroots had opened for Freddy Jones Band, and Bill sat in on a few songs. Wayne Healy, Freddy Jones Band's guitarist, called him up as "Young William" — a nickname that stuck for over 13 years.

Over the following years, The Bitteroots and Freddy Jones Band shared a half-dozen more stages. Bill and Wayne became good friends, talking for years about starting a band together.

In 2017, Wayne and Bill, along with Clay Fuller from Allgood, all met in Atlanta, had dinner and a cocktail or two, and formed The Core with some of the finest musicians in the southeast.

The Core started out doing Eric Clapton covers, but during the pandemic hiatus, they switched the focus to performing music from the legendary H.O.R.D.E. tours — Widespread Panic, Dave Matthews Band, Phish, Blues Traveler, Allman Brothers Band, Col. Bruce Hampton, Freddy Jones Band, Allgood, Spin Doctors, and many more.

The band features a rotating cast of some of the highest-caliber Georgia musicians and session players, anchored by a core rhythm section that has been together since the beginning.

What makes The Core unique is that its founding members actually played the H.O.R.D.E. tours. Wayne Healy toured with Freddy Jones Band on H.O.R.D.E. '94. Clay Fuller played it with Allgood in '93. Chris Queen has played with Phil Keaggy and Dreams So Real. Kevin Leahy has toured with BoDeans, Sugarland, Shawn Mullins, and Allgood. Rob Sumowski has played with Billy Pilgrim, Shawn Mullins, Kevn Kinney, and Brent Cobb.

When The Core plays these songs, it's not a cover band learning from records. These musicians lived this era and bring firsthand knowledge of how this music was meant to be played — the improvisation, the energy, the way songs stretched and breathed on stage during those legendary summer tours.