The Porch Dogs are a group of local greats, with Steve Gerard (vocals, guitars); Bill Price (bass, bg vocals); Mike Woodford (percussion), Kevin Belzner (drums), and their newest member, Mitchell Brady (guitar, voice). After losing their founder, the great Tim Williams, the group has vowed to continue on and are pleased to be paying homage to their beloved brother in blues.

Together they perform a funky, fun mixture of swampy blues with healthy portions of West Coast Swing, cool offbeat covers, and straight-up blues, with a healthy dose of original tunes plus a tinge of East L.A. latino blues and r&b.

Formed almost 15 years ago, the group has appeared at Calgary International Blues Festival, Jazz On The Lake (Sylvan Lake), Barbecue On The Bow and more, projecting the tightness of a band who play with both musical precision and the looseness of fine musicians having a pile of fun.

Steve Gerard is the owner/engineer at Bette Jane Recording Studio and has recorded two CDs as leader of The National Debonairs. He produced the documentary series American Blues!, and is a veteran of the Denver and Jackson (Mississippi) blues scenes.

Kevin Belzner and Tim Williams met working with the late Back Alley John, and continued to collaborate for more than thirty years. He also has worked with Tony D, Suzy Vinnick, and many others (most recently the L.A.- Houston cantina band Tremoloco.

Mike Woodford began playing with East Coast Icon, the late Dutch Mason, and went on to study drums with Uriel Jones (The Funk Brothers). His timbales, bongos, congas and more mesh with Kevin’s drums into a tasty gumbo of Afro-American, Afro-Caribbean and Latin American polyrhythms,underscoring the range of the music the band performs.

Bill Price is a member of the band of the late, much beloved Sonny Rhodes, and one of the first-call blues bassists in Calgary, both for live gigs and recording. His “just enough” approach to blues bass completes the foundation the band’s music is built on.

If B.B. King, Sam The Sham, and Los Lobos had a jam session, they’d sound a lot like The Porch Dogs.

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