About

Columbia, SC’s George Fetner and the Strays have steadily gained attention from music-lovers and musicians alike. Culling influences from nine proficient performers, the band has developed a soulful, southern sound rooted in rhythm and blues, improvisatory rock, and captivating musical left turns.

After polishing their large, seasoned sound with festival appearances at Fall for Greenville, St. Pat’s in Five Points, the Jam Room Music Festival, JerryFest and others, GFATS released “Merry Run Around” in 2021, a live album showcasing brassy takes on Grateful Dead favorites, “both utterly unlike anything you would ever hear at a Dead concert and yet wonderfully, soothingly familiar to fans and newcomers alike” (Free Times).

GFATS released their debut LP “Longer Like This” in the summer of 2020. Recorded at the Jam Room to tape and pressed to vinyl: “the band’s joyful vibe and experimental sound spill out from the speakers, filling the room and pulling the listener to their feet in an impromptu dance party with nine of Columbia’s most daring musical exhibitionists” (The State).

Released in 2018, their self-titled debut EP featured for the first time an extended lineup of musicians, “all of whom come together for a rollicking, raucous (and brassy!) joyride” (SC Music Guide). That extended lineup now is more common than not, adding percussion, horns, and keyboards to the two-guitar quartet. “Whereas most local acts would have turned this expansion into a trainwreck, Fetner expertly guided his ensemble into something that sounded, in fact, bigger than its parts, evoking the stadium grandeur of U2, the worldly musings of Peter Gabriel, and, yes, the loose-limbed feelgoods of Phish” (Free Times). 

Catherine Allgrim - bass trombone
Moses Andrews, III - keyboards, vocals
Davis Bowers - saxophone
Craig Butterfield - bass
Anthony Charles - guitar, vocals
Matt Fenech - drums
George Fetner - guitar, vocals
Will Melven - trumpet
Jeff Vaughn - percussion