Hometown ‘Screen Door’ Draws Fans from Jackson, Holland, Beyond – Screen Door Porch to Play Beartrap

The schedule of Americana duo/quartet Screen Door Porch has taken them to both coasts and points between, and many of their songs are radio favorites in Italy, Germany, and The Netherlands.

But when a band's most recent gigs are at the Pink Garter and the Mangy Moose, you might suspect they're Wyomingites, and you'd be correct.

Jackson Hole-based Aaron Davis and Seadar Rose made their debut with the 2010 album “Screen Door Porch,” and it quickly showed up in five prestigious “Best Of” lists: Roots Music Report, NPR's Best of Wyoming, Tupelo Honey, Twangville, and American Roots UK.

Superlative comparisons were a common theme of the early reviews, with Maverick Magazine commenting that “Rose's vocals have the languid drawl of Lucinda Williams, while Davis sounds like 'Whiskeytown'-era Ryan Adams.” More recently, the band placed Silver in Jackson Hole Weekly's reader poll for Best Band Playing Original Music, and a Bronze for Best New Album.

That new album is “The Fate & The Fruit,” and its dozen original songs drew an ebullient review with even more superlatives from Americana UK, which observed, “Rose and Davis swap lead vocals to suit the song and the writer, a sort of Lennon/McCartney arrangement, and get it right every time. Heartfelt and earthy, tunes such as 'Burnin' at Both Ends' and 'Shift Work' show both our heroes at their most gritty. The reality is that Seadar Rose and Aaron Davis go together like bacon and eggs. This is the sound of America, untamed and infinite.”

Davis, a self-taught musician born in Bowling Green, Kentucky, says that putting down “a second set of roots” in Wyoming since 2001 has had a real impact on his songwriting: “A day in the life is easy to take for granted, and living in a small tight-knit mountain town keeps me inspired on a daily basis,” he explains. “Rivers and open spaces have become necessities for me, and that’s often translated through my work. It's important to connect with community, but also to disconnect and find that balance.”

Rose and Davis first met when she signed up for guitar lessons from him, and they found that one of their musical commonalities was a love of jam bands: him a fan of Grateful Dead and Phish, while she preferred the style of Widespread Panic.

“Versatile” wouldn't be a bad adjective to throw in, either. One reviewer points out that they play “just about anything with strings,” plus a lot of things without—harmonica, keyboards, and a kick-drum made from an old Samsonite suitcase, “for a little more of a backbeat,” Davis says.

Rose also enlists a homemade instrument she calls a “kazoogle”--a cross between a kazoo and French horn—for a number with the cryptic title “Wrinkled-Neck Mule.” “There's a kazoogle solo and a backward-kazoogle solo,” she explains. “But it's a humorous song, so it all fits.”

The Beartrap show on Sunday will feature the band in quartet mode, with the addition of rhythm section Tom Davidson (bass) and Andy Peterson (drums).

“Long are the Days,” from Screen Door Porch's newest album “The Fate and the Fruit,”: