Dave Harrington Departs Taper’s Choice

Taper’s Choice announced co-founding guitarist Dave Harrington is leaving the band. The original TC lineup — Harrington, bassist Alex Bleeker, keyboardist and drummer Chris Tomson — will play one final show together on March 26 at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville.

“For personal reasons, I am stepping away from touring with the band, but I have and will always deeply love the music of Taper’s Choice and my friends Chris, Alex and Zach, the wizards who make it,” Harrington wrote in a statement shared by Taper’s Choice. “I hope to continue to be a part of the larger TC universe as we all move forward. Sometimes, man…catch you later on down the trail.”

Taper’s Choice issued a statement of their own, writing:

Ok friends, no particularly easy or clever way of saying this: Dave is leaving the Choice! Somewhere in the individualistic vagaries of life, home and tour, every musician must figure out where the best balance lands for them…and for Dave there just isn’t enough room for the ever expanding Choice universe. Legit bummer! But, also, much respect!

Logistical outcomes: there is one more Taper’s 1.0 show (Big Ears 3/26). If for the rest of your life, you want to be able to truthfully say “Yeah, this is good but you shoulda seen ’em with Dave…” you better get your butt to Big Ears!

For our upcoming West Coast tour supporting Eggy we are incredibly grateful to have our old friend CJ Tywoniak stepping in for us on short notice. He’s a certified tasteful ripper!

Philosophical outcomes: We’re gonna jam our way past this! Dave is such a singular and irreplaceable talent that it will take a minute for the 1.0 -> 2.0 system update to finalize but we will get there. Our core conceptual and spiritual underpinnings (including, but not limited to, the fact that the term “jamband” is a single compound word, Tonic is as hallowed a ground as Nectar’s or Magoo’s Pizza Parlor, and the acceptance of death is essential to living a full realized life) will remain intact and as viable as ever. Many more jams await us all.

Eggy and Taper’s Choice’s Peaks & Valleys Spring Tour 2026 begins on April 1 in Phoenix. The nine-show West Coast tour ends on April 11 in Seattle.