Former MISFITS vocalist turned solo artist MICHALE GRAVES, has issued the following press release:

"Bob Lancaster wrote an article that appeared in the Arkansas Times that describes his personal experience and perspective after sitting through the trials of Jason Baldwin, Jessie Misskeley Jr. and Damien Echols better known as The West Memphis Three. Lancaster writes about trying to imagine how and why three eight-year old boys disappeared on the hot, humid summer night of May 5th 1993. The boys were found dead the next afternoon in a drainage ditch not far from Interstate 40 in West Memphis, Arkansas. The children’s wrists were bound to their ankles by their shoelaces. The children had been savagely beaten. One of the children was castrated and bled to death. Their bodies and their clothes were pushed under the water and down into the muck and mud of the river bed.

As he sat through the trials hoping to hear the answers and the evidence to who and why these children were killed the author writes that the testimony “never clarified anything.” He writes about his weary drives home at dusk where he would be “watching the dark settle across those endless tragic cropfields, the broad guilty delta where this crime was conceived and came to pass. The spectator's route. Every one of these roundtrips a Dantean journey trying to find a trustworthy perspective on a cruel little piece of Hell.”

These trials that “never clarified anything” concluded with all three defendants being found guilty of The Satanic Ritual Slaughter of three eight-year old boys. Damien Echols was sentenced to be executed by The State of Arkansas.

Damien Echols and I have produced a project and a collection of songs that I will record in his home state of Arkansas. Prior to the recording of our album, I will perform in a a handful of southern cities in the region in an attempt to continue the work of The Almost Home campaign in coordination with Music For Life and Free The West Memphis Three.

“These shows will be me and my acoustic guitar and a lifetime's journey of songs that I will share with you in its most intimate form.”

These shows and the recording of this record will be taped for an upcoming film.

“I invite you to come and join me for an evening of magick and beauty. A journey for me to find and articulate "a trustworthy perspective on a cruel little piece of hell while confronting all of the demons and darkness that dwell in it.

Graves"

Michale encourages you to visit www.WM3.org for more information.

Three Chords And The Truth: Southern Acoustic Spoken Word Tour

February

27 - The Muse - 835 4th Ave S - Nashville, TN
28 - The Hideaway - 235 East Main Street - Johnson City, TN

March

1 - Ziggy's - 607 Cherokee Blvd - Chattanooga, TN
2 - Paradise Bar And Grill - Gray Highway - Macon, GA
3 - Manolia Theater - Main Street - Eastman, GA
4 - The Drunken Unicorn - 736 Ponce De Leon Place - Atlanta, GA
9 - Uptown Coffee - 465 S Gloster St - Tupelo, MS

More dates coming soon.

In other news, Quincy Smash has joined Graves and Vampiro to form DEVIL DEVIL. Updates coming soon. In the meantime check out Vampiro's new television series: Wrestling Society X, premiering on MTV Tuesday, January 23rd.