Screen Door Porch: Down-Home Vibe, Rustic Harmonies

The band known as Screen Door Porch are activists. Not in a political sense, but a musical one. They were the driving force behind creating the annual WYOmericana Caravan Tour that's garnered airwave praise and press ink from here to The New York Times and back.

"It's sort of like being traveling gypsies and sort of drifters," says Aaron Davis, vocalist and banjoist of the band. "Being on the road for us is a lot of the same elements that brought us to Wyoming in the first place...exploring new places, and we're lucky that the music takes us there."

"I feel like there's a definite energy to this place," vocalist and guitarist Seadar Rose adds, "and you only have to be here a little while to feel it."

The quartet became a national touring act in 2010, and hasn't slowed down. Rounding out the group are bassist David Bundy and drummer/harmony vocalist Andy Peterson. The group's magic has been described as "a breadth of acoustic and electric instrumentation--acoustic/resonator/electric/slide guitars, banjo, mandolin, harmonica, and kazoogle, backed by a powerful rhythm section. The dynamic range of textures allows for the high-energy swagger of gritty, slide-induced blues-rock to pensive alt-country and flourishes of gypsy jazz and folk-grass."

The group has also been described by 605 Magazine as "Stevie Nicks meets The Band with Ronnie Raitt and Ryan Adams hanging out backstage." Their most recent album, "Modern Settler," was voted Wyoming Public Radio’s 2015 Regional Album of the Year and has appeared on eight publications' "Best Of" lists. The New York Times praised their “entrepreneurial gumption in founding the multi-act WYOmericana Caravan Tour, a traveling concert circus,” while Paste Magazine found the band to be “an impressive musical discovery.”

Americana UK says of Screen Door Porch: "Rose and Davis evoke a down-home vibe with rustic harmonies and a sort of Lennon/McCartney arrangement and get it right every time, yet the rawness of their country-blues heroes and the spirit of late 60s/early 70s rock and roll shines through."

But what no source has put its finger on is how the band's "high-energy swagger" jibes with the homey, gentle screen door porch that is its namesake. For attendees of this year's Beartrap Summer Festival, hearing will be believing.