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Midway into Green River Ordinance’s show Friday night at Shank Hall, lead singer Josh Jenkins gave their listeners what he called a “news flash”: the band’s sound has changed some since their 2005 debut album.
Where once the amiable Fort Worth quintet were proffering the kind of adult contemporary-compatible alt rock that landed them spots supporting the Goo Goo Dolls and Lifehouse, they have made an organic transition to a country sound. GRO won’t likely ever be mistaken for a Hank Williams tribute act, but neither are they proffering the sort of bastardized glop bro-tastic twerps like Luke Bryan at his worst produce, nor muck more redolent of an unholy R&B hybrid like R. Kelly. Played alongside current, more roots-oriented commercial country radio presences, including Brothers Osborne and Jon Pardi, they’re a good fit.
Try telling the gatekeepers at Billboard that, though. The powers that be at the music trade magazine have deemed Green River Ordinance’s latest album, Fifteen, not country enough to grace its country albums sales chart, where it would have entered in its top 10 last February. That didn’t stop numerous bloggers covering the genre from taking up the band’s cause and questioning the curious chart exclusion. Neither did it stop the group from filling Shank to about three quarters of its capacity for a rousing, uplifting time.
Fifteen’s lead single, “Red Fire Night,” pleads the act’s case for being a country act as eloquently as anything. There’s romance, some alcohol and a gloriously ear-worming chorus, like Florida Georgia Line with more joyous singing and absent the icky gender politics. The current album’s “Keep Your Cool” has the making of an anthem that could get country festival attendees’ fists pumping.
GRO’s current vibe informed their song choices that don’t quite comport with country, too. The 2009 album cut “Goodbye L.A.,” inspired by a Los Angeles tour van accident with an aftermath that led to one band member meeting his wife. “Better Love,” which Jenkins introduced as being about grace, negotiates the aesthetic space between bluegrass’ gospel side and the better end of acoustic contemporary Christian praise and worship music. Go figure, though, that not long after that song, bassist Geoff Ice would take up the vocals for the boogie grind of ZZ Top’s whorehouse ode, “La Grange.” Given the sacred ambiance earlier in the set, though, a run through the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” took on a more providential air than Jagger and Richards may have originally intended.
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Honors for the goofiest remake of the night, though, go to what sounded like a semi-improvised medley of Pras Michel, Ol’ Dirty Bastard and Mya’s “Ghetto Superstar” (already an interpolation of Kenny Rogers’ and Dolly Parton’s “Islands In The Stream,” so country comes into play again) and TLC’s “No Scrubs.” The same minimal approach was employed to a more heartfelt end as the band closed the show singing without amplification, leaving Shank in a probably rare could-hear-a-pin-drop few minutes of reverence.
Opener and alum of “The Voice” Luke Wade started off the evening in a manner not far removed from the headliners’ origins. He brought to mind ’90s singer-songwriters Duncan Sheik and Edwin McCain as he sang songs of personal experience and reflection, and Paul McCartney’s “Maybe I’m Amazed” accompanied by his acoustic guitar. By the end of his set, the crowd was markedly less talkative than when he began, so he must have won over a good many in attendance. It’s not out of the realm of possibility to imagine him returning to Shank Hall with an opening act of his own.
