The Porkroll Project

Neil "Porkroll" Taylor
Porkroll comes from a long line of watermen and pirates. He has two basic loves -- playing guitar and cooking. His BBQ is well known throughout the Delaware Valley, as is his tasty blues playing. His musical influences range far and wide, but credits Buddy Guy and Luther Allison as his most recent inspirations. Previously, he co-founded the well-known MudBoy blues band which played around the Southeast Pennsylvania for nearly a decade. For a time, he also performed with Melissa Martin and the Mighty Rhythm Kings. He also brings his tasty guitar to the Union Street Blues and Legendary Sinners bands.

Joe "Big Note" Stout
Big Note is no stranger to the almighty groove. His musical influences range from Delbert McClinton to Sly Stone to Tower of Power to James Brown. Joe has performed in the Delaware Valley for the past 20 years with such groups as Tequila Kings, Mudboy, Big Rhythm, Lenny & the Soulsenders, The Andy Kimball Express and the Contagious Party Band. Although a guitarist since the age of 5 (leaving many a melted tube amp in his wake), Big Note had been bitten by the B3 bug early on in childhood. He pulls his influences from such notable greats as Jimmy Greenspoon (3 Dog Night), John Lord (Deep Purple), Billy Preston, Bill Payne (Little Feat) as well as his late band mate & fellow keyboardist, Bill “Wolf" Young.

Paul Matecki
Paul has been playing piano since he was able to reach the keys of the Lester piano in the family living room. Self taught on guitar, he sang lead with quite a few rock bands over the last 20 years. He's always loved early rock 'n roll and blues records. Favorite players include Johnnie Johnson, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Scotty Moore, Carl Perkins, Otis Rush, The Stones, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and many, many others.

He attended West Chester University as a music major, where he earned a degree in piano performance. In addition to The Porkroll Project, he has played or is playing with: The Overheads, Bender, Gracie, and Melissa Martin & The Mighty Rhythm Kings.

Ed Young
Ed grew up in appalachian foothills of southeastern Ohio. He moved around a lot when he was a kid, and continued to move to bigger and bigger cities, further and further east, going to college at Penn State and finally landing in Philly--where he teaches philosophy during the day and plays his guitar and bass at night. Besides playing bass in the Porkroll Project, he does solo work on the guitar. Always busy, Ed is also the bass player for a blues band (3rd Degree), and for a country combo called Six Pack Creek.

Chad Edstrom
Chad joined forces with Neil "Porkroll" Taylor in the mid nineties as the Sound Engineer for Porkroll's previous band Mudboy. One fateful night Chad sat in on a couple of tunes, and the rest, as they say, is history. He has been behind the drum kit ever since. Chad brings over 30 years of experience to the mix, and has played just about every kind of music at one time or another. But for the past decade his heart is in the Blues. "Working with such great musicians is a real treat for me. The Blues can cover a lot of ground, rhythmically speaking and these guys aren't hesitant to try any style or form. It's challenging and a whole lot of fun."

Buddy Cleveland
Harp player and vocalist Buddy Cleveland grew up in Rockville, MD. He got serious about the harp when he got to know the outstanding DC area blues guitarist Mike "Junior" Tash of the Bad Influence Band. Mike gave him lots of encouragement and even invited Buddy sit in with his band on occasion. In 1999, after moving to the Philadelphia area, Buddy joined some guys he worked with and this group ultimately became the Voodoo DeVille band. Buddy formed the Union Street Blues band in 2007 along with Porkroll and then joined the Porkroll Project in 2008. He still performs regularly with Voodoo DeVille, Union Street Blues, Smokehouse Ramblers and the Dave Mell Blues Band.