Photo by Alex Maness
The Wiley Fosters began in 2010 as the house band at Zog’s Pool Hall in Chapel Hill. From 2014 - 2018 they were in residency at Mystery Brewing Company in Hillsborough and from 2019 - 2023 were the house band at Unscripted Hotel in Durham, NC. They’ve been in residency at Blue Note Grill since 2019.
They are named in tribute to their great friend Mr Tater The Music Maker (née Foster Wiley) of Clarksdale, Mississippi. The Wiley Fosters try and live up to the example that the real Foster Wiley set by always having new members, new instrumentation, and new songs. As Mr. Tater famously said in his “Music Maker” documentary, “I make people happy… and I never play the same song twice neither.”