Tenderloin

Tenderloin delivered a robust helping of Middle American boogie-down blues, fronted by the imposing, steer-sized Ernie Locke on lead vocals and harmonica. Fresh from his stint in the Sin City Disciples, another Lawrence, Kansas, outfit, Locke joined forces in 1993 with guitar-playing Gray Ginther, bassist Brock Ginther, and drummer Guy Stephens to lay down the debut album Let It Leak, which Warner Bros. subsequently acquired. After the group fractured, Locke assembled a revised lineup for the label’s next release, bringing in Patrick “Taz” Bentley—formerly of Reverend Horton Heat—alongside the Rev’s guitar tech Kirk St. James and bassist John Cutler. Locke’s stage antics, which prominently displayed his butt-crack and Buddha-belly, powered a ferocious roadhouse-rock assault; the band promoted its 1995 follow-up Bullseye by touring alongside like-minded Supersuckers. Warner Bros. cut ties the subsequent year, prompting a move to the independent Time Bomb label for the self-titled final album in 1997. The band formally disbanded in 1998, after which Locke and Cutler launched the new Lawrence-area project Parlay.