The man now known as Chicken Coop Willaye moved from his home state of North Carolina to Atlanta, Georgia, after graduating from Appalachian State University in Boone. During the decade he lived in Atlanta, he was known as Washboard Willaye.
In Atlanta, Willaye met local legends who gathered for performances in Northside Tavern, eventually sitting in with Danny “Mudcat” Dudeck on his Wednesday night performances there. Playing piedmont and country blues, Willaye earned his nickname from the instrument he learned to play there – the washboard.
On Tuesday nights there, Donnie “Mac” McCormick performed his primary instrument at Northside. He discovered this primary instrument in the early 70s, during a jam session at “The Farm,” a property in Juliette, Georgia, owned by the Allman Brothers.
During the session, Mac ran out of objects to drum on, but somebody from the group handed him another object: a chicken coop. The rest, as they say, is history, and Mac continued playing the chicken coop until his death in 2009.
Performing with Mac, Willaye found himself inspired, and in a similar turn of events, he found a chicken coop in the barn of an antique store in North Georgia. That day, Chicken Coop Willaye was born.
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