Porch Ghouls

Hailing from Memphis, Tennessee, this four-piece outfit known as the Porch Ghouls dismantles raw country blues only to reassemble the fragments with playful abandon, fusing unpolished Southern blues traditions and punk rock's raw drive into the style they label "Ruckus Music." Summer 1997 saw the act originate in Gainesville, Florida, as a trio named the Ghastly Ones, built from Eldorado Del Ray and Bon Musclecar of Grit Kisser alongside Son Rocket. Upon learning that a California group already held rights to the Ghastly Ones name, they switched to the Porch Ghouls; Florida's inhospitable climate for unconventional acts then prompted relocation first to New Orleans for a brief interval before the band put down roots in Memphis. Repeated lineup shifts there eventually stabilized around Eldorado Del Ray handling Dobro guitar and lead vocals, Slim Electro on electric guitar, Randy Valentine on harmonica, and Duke Baltimore managing percussion duties that centered on an amplified suitcase. That configuration recorded the debut EP in 2001, yet Duke Baltimore exited before year's end and was succeeded by the female drummer Lady Baltimore. During 2002 the Porch Ghouls unexpectedly attracted support from Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry, who encountered their lean, blues-rooted approach, endorsed it, and placed them on his new Roman Records imprint; the Sony-distributed label is slated to issue the band's first full-length album in spring 2003.