Green River Ordinance Excluded from Billboard Country Charts While Other Acts Go Unquestioned
What is country, and what is not country is a long-standing argument in country music that will never be resolved, and has been around since the very beginning of the genre. In the last few years, the question has become even more heated as acts like Sam Hunt, Kelsea Ballerini, and Chris Lane release singles without a single signifier of the benchmarks people traditionally consider as country music.
But this week the debate took a very strange turn when a band from Texas called Green River Ordinance was told their new album Fifteen was not country enough for Billboard‘s Country Albums Chart. For the last couple of years country fans have been questioning how chart managers for Billboard and other entities could listen to certain songs or performers and consider them country in the slightest. Yet here is a band making music that’s more country than it is anything else, and more country than most of what you hear on country radio, and Billboard is denying their admittance on the country charts.
The band’s current single “Red Fire Night” is a harmony and fiddle-driven tune (listen below), and the song has been charting on the regional country charts in Texas. On Saturday, Green River Ordinance will be making their third appearance on the Grand Ole Opry. But even with a clear country sound and a mountain of evidence, Billboard is not budging.
“This band has naturally been in the country music space for the last several years,” says Larry Murray, manager for Green River Ordinance. As Larry explains, the Ft. Worth, TX-based band started out as more of an alternative pop rock and folk outfit. But over the years, especially concerning their last album Under Fire from 2012, they’ve been considered part of the bigger country music community in Texas and beyond.
“Even the iTunes pre-order charted Top 10 on the iTunes country charts,” says Murray. “We never though up until Sunday evening that it would not be considered country, and we still don’t know a full answer of why that is. There is not a set criteria that encompasses an exclusion for the band that would keep them out of the chart. Looking at the other players on the chart, there’s no reason for it. What is country music in 2016 if these 10 or 15 other acts are considered country, and Green River Ordinance isn’t?”
Larry Murray says he was first contacted last Thursday (1-28) by Billboard, who informed him that the band’s latest record released by Residence Music would be recognized on the charts. However they were told it wouldn’t be in country, but in Billboard‘s Rock Chart and Folk Chart, despite the fact that the metadata for the music was filled out as a country album, and it’s categorized as country in all digital and physical distribution outlets. Green River Ordinance even currently has a video on CMT, and were featured on Sirius XM’s The Highway’s “On The Horizon” program.
But none of this, or the music itself, was enough to get Billboard to change their mind. So Larry Murray escalated this issue to Billboard‘s country chart manager who responded, “Right now we have decided to not flag this project country. That’s a judgement call on our part, but we put a lot of thought into that process. Also, just an FYI; I was a Country radio PD for many years. That experience helps me make these decisions.”
Wade Jessen, Billboard‘s long-time senior chart manager for country music, passed away unexpectedly at the age of 53 in March of 2015. Wade had taken over the position in 1994. This left the position vacant for a while, until Jim Asker, who was the former country editor for All Access, was hired by Billboard in June of 2015. Asker was also a country radio program director for numerous years prior to taking the position at All Access.
As the Green River Ordinance management team continued to question Billboard’s decision, they were told, “If the single starts getting radio play I’ll revisit that track to be flagged country,” but this was only germane to the single, not the album. And as manager Larry Murray explains, the single “Red Fire Night” was already receiving country radio play when this explanation was given to him.
“It’s being spun on major country stations through iHeartMedia’s Country House Party, which is in 12 huge markets,” Murray says. “The single charted. People are picking it up on Music Row indicators. The song was added just two weeks ago on Spotify’s top two country playlists—Hot Country and Wild Country. A week ago, Green River Ordinance was in Billboard’s Country Weekly as the #1 Texas country music song on the TRR.”
Billboard also cited the genre description found on the Green River Ordinance Facebook page as a reason to not include the band in country. Green River Ordinance designate themselves on Facebook as “Alternative Pop/Rock with a Southern twist—Country, Folk, and Americana.” Some of their songs certainly do have folk, pop, and rock influences, but country still feels like the predominant style. Green River Ordinance may have been penalized partly for being honest about their varying influences—something some mainstream country performers refuse to acknowledge.
Many may wonder what any of this matters, or if charts matter at all. But for bands like Green River Ordinance, a good showing on the Billboard charts can make a big difference, just as it has for many small label artists in the last few years. Green River Ordinance would have come in at #7 on the Billboard Country Albums Chart this week, and they would have been able to declare the top-charting debut for the week. Instead, they’re relegated to other charts where they’re less likely to receive the same attention from peers in their industry.
“In the country world we’re still being identified and growing and telling a story that this band is moving forward,” says manager Larry Murray. “It would have a huge impact on their ability to play country festivals, and support other country acts. And it’s the story they deserve. And since there’s no good reason not to be on the chart, it leaves us questioning, and disappointed for sure.”
When Thirty Tigers artist Jason Isbell hit #1 on the Billboard Country Albums Chart in 2015 with his latest release Something More Than Free, he simultaneously hit #1 on both the Billboard Folk and Rock charts as well. At the time, there was a lot of questioning if this was fair to the artists of the other charts for Isbell to soak up so much attention. And listening to the albums from Isbell and Green River Ordinance, the case could certainly be made that Green River Ordinance is the more country-sounding effort.
Similarly, acts outside of country that release albums in the country format such as Lionel Richie, Bon Jovi, Steven Tyler, Don Henley, and many others have not been recused from charting on the country charts just because they released albums or singles in other formats previously, not to mention the scores of current acts that offer little to no resemblance to country who find no question from Billboard in being included in country charts.
Green River Ordinance will move on and continue to reach new fans with their album and single, but this issue could mark a dangerous new turn in the way country music is charted and considered by industry stalwarts like Billboard. Will we see a scenario in the future where artists or bands are excluded from the country charts because they’re too country, or because certain gatekeepers don’t see the benefit of including them in the genre?
Every day it appears the definition of what is “country” slips one step further out of the hands of the people who should be able to define it and who make up the true heart of the music: the artists and the fans.
– – – – – – – – – – –
Note: Saving Country Music reached out to Billboard Editorial Director Denise Warner and Associate Director of Charts Gary Trust for comment on this story, and did not receive a reply.
February 2, 2016 @ 7:30 pm
Trigger,
As you know, I’ve not always liked everything here for one reason or another but kudos for laying out this story for the world to know. I had mentioned something about it to the PR team too today (I didn’t see the charts til this afternoon). I hope Billboard rectify’s this situation as the album clearly is whatever one calls country these days. If “Jekyll + Hyde” is country then so is this record.
February 2, 2016 @ 8:10 pm
Jim Asker, who was involved in Country Radio back when Bill Clinton was president, the cowboys were winning super bowls, and people were buying CD’s at things called “Music Stores” gets to decide what is country or not? That makes a ton of sense! Have not heard the new GRO CD, but I loved Dancing Shoes. Their ‘Chasing Down The Wind EP’ was amazing and more country than most of electronic beats and rapping you hear on mainstream country radio. I am going to go download “Fifteen” and show my support. Billboard needs to get with the times.
February 2, 2016 @ 8:57 pm
I’ve been a fan of GRO for many years, and hope Billboard changes their method of assigning genres soon. However, I’d kindly like to point out that their current single is not “Red Fire Light,” as you mentioned twice, but rather “Red Fire Night.”
February 2, 2016 @ 9:13 pm
Green River Ordinance is known throughout the industry for constantly trying to hijack new genres to get exposure. I would think that Billboard can clearly see this and is obstructing using genre-jacking as marketing.
February 2, 2016 @ 9:25 pm
Country music is known throughout the industry for constantly trying to hijack new genres to get exposure. I would think that Billboard can clearly see this and should obstruct using genre-jacking as marketing.
February 2, 2016 @ 11:44 pm
I see what you did there
February 3, 2016 @ 8:12 pm
Winner.
February 3, 2016 @ 10:54 am
Still more country than Luke or Thomas Rhett or FGL
February 4, 2016 @ 7:45 am
“Green River Ordinance is known throughout the industry for constantly trying to hijack new genres to get exposure.”
Have you heard Sam Hunt?
February 2, 2016 @ 9:18 pm
Hold up a minute! That is not country that is pop set to a fiddle, backstreet boys with a denim shirt. That IS NOT Country! That should be classified as trash. Why is this even a story? I thought I would hit play and hear some kind of folk or obviously country song, and instead I hear dirt road anthem re wrote as campfire anthem. Just cause they traded rock guitars for a fiddle they should be labeled in the “panders to country is cool crowd”.
Green river brought to mind Waylon, these folks googled country music and sharted a single. If you like this song I hope all 5 of them ” lay you down by that red fire light” at once, against your will with no lube.
February 3, 2016 @ 1:52 am
I can see why you’d say that, it has a polish to it and the singers definitely sound as if they’ve actually had singing lessons, but I would say your comparison to Backstreet Boys is unfounded. Also, there were songs like this long before ‘dirt road anthems’ ever became a thing. The difference between a stereotypical dirt road anthem and this is that DRAs usually involve the male singer taking an anonymous, passive, nondescript-but-attractive female to do something and the female subject of the song may or may not actually do anything of substance. In this song the two are planning something and the anonymous female subject has an active role. This is a night meant for them to enjoy together rather than the one-sided lust-fest of the typical dirt road anthem.
February 3, 2016 @ 7:49 am
If singing great harmonies = you sound like the backstreet boys, well then i guess consider me a boy band lover. I’ve seen GRO live, their harmonies sounded like the Eagles and The Band. They play real instruments, write their own songs, and put on a damn good show. Nothin fake about that!
February 3, 2016 @ 10:55 am
Whether you or anyone else likes “Red Fire Night” or Green River Ordinance is inconsequential to this issue. The question is when you listen to this song or the group’s music, and then you listen to 80% of the rest of the stuff that IS classified as “country” on the Billboard charts, and Green River Ordinance clearly has more signifiers for what is traditionally considered country, then we enter a slippery slope where long-standing music institutions are dictating what is country or not using very flawed reasoning. The result could be dozens of acts being excluded from country in the future just because someone feels they don’t fit in the genre based off of their own personal taste, while acts like Sam Hunt flourish under those same guidelines.
Frankly, it’s selfish as a country music lover to say, “I don’t like their music, so this is a non issue.” I think this is a massive issue that goes well beyond Green River Ordinance, and every concerned country music fan should be seriously troubled by this development.
February 3, 2016 @ 11:51 am
So you believe suitable punishment for liking a song you dislike would be getting gang raped by the performers of that song.
Ah, the Internet. How it brings out the best in people.
February 2, 2016 @ 10:11 pm
Green River Ordinance is more country that Sam Hunt and Old Dominion.
February 2, 2016 @ 11:26 pm
My question is, why draw the line here in particular?
Compare this situation to that of the band Parmalee, who started out as a hard alt-rock act, only to turn around and refashion themselves as a “country” act years later, with country radio’s full blessing. (And “Red Fire Night” is more country than anything Parmalee has done.)
This feels more like Music Row trying to protect its territory from “outside-the-system” interlopers.
February 3, 2016 @ 11:00 am
Yes, so we let Sam Hunt, Kelsea Ballerini, Taylor Swift, that stuff from Jerrod Niemann a few years back, Kane Brown, and all manner of newcomers waltz in and declare themselves country without even a batted eyelash. But Green River Ordinance? Well now, THAT’S where we draw a hard line and declare “None Shall Pass!”
This is ridiculous. It’s madness. And if they can exclude Green River Ordinance, they can exclude ANY independent band they feel like they don’t want to be recognized on the charts.
February 4, 2016 @ 5:30 pm
I agree that the song(I haven’t heard the rest of the album) fit the genre, but then so do alot of the hipster bands. I like seeing new bands come on the scene, but adding anything that sounds country to the genre would really open the doors to real country getting drowned in impostors. Sure, there may be some on the chart that don’t fit the mold, but opening it to anyone that has a country sounding song would be a mistake in my opinion.
One example I can think of is Contemporary Christian Music. There are tons of bands that sound country, and if you go back far enough many Country singers were gospel at the core. If those artists were allowed to be on the charts just because they sound country and some stations play them, we would be drowned by people that aren’t “country bands.”
I have a guy that I used to be good friends with, he’s a hipster’s hipster, Bands like this he loves, and claims that they are not country, and that they are in their own subgenre of Alt-rock.
February 4, 2016 @ 6:52 pm
“I like seeing new bands come on the scene, but adding anything that sounds country to the genre would really open the doors to real country getting drowned in impostors. Sure, there may be some on the chart that don”™t fit the mold, but opening it to anyone that has a country sounding song would be a mistake in my opinion.”
That’s not the point. If 15 to 20 of the albums currently on the Billboard Country Albums chart are clearly LESS country than this one, why is Green River Ordinance being singled out? Why are they the ones being made an example of? Yes, and hipster band can put out a country-sounding album and be considered country. That’s already happening. It’s been happening for dozens of years. So why is the line being drawn at Green River Ordinance?
Also, I really don’t like to see the sentiment of “these guys look like hipsters” that I’m seeing all over the place and so somehow that means we should have less of a problem excluding them from country. Are we that scared of people who don’t look like us? This is a version of tribalism that I just don’t identify with. Maybe we shouldn’t call Charley Pride country because he’s black. Maybe Hank Snow and Corb Lund aren’t country because they’re Canadian. Where do you draw the line? So if these guys wore cowboy hats then we would be calling foul? And frankly, they don’t really look that hipsterish to me. They’re from ding dong Ft. Worth.
February 4, 2016 @ 7:12 pm
I posted on another post that after listening to more of the album that after listening to more of the album, I would be fine with this being on the Country chart.
As for hipsters, I have no problem with hipsters, I just assumed that in my ignorance at first. I thought this was a one shot concept album, and they would go back to rock, and wondered why the community was making such a fuss about it. However after reading Jamey’s post, I feel much more confident that they are here to stay.
February 4, 2016 @ 8:14 pm
Okay sorry, it appears we were both posting at the same time. I see where you responded.
I don’t think Green River Ordinance is a stereotypical traditional country band by any stretch, and that’s what can complicate this issue for some.
February 4, 2016 @ 8:44 pm
They are not fake because they are hipsters, they are hipsters cause they are fake. Other wise it would be genuine individualism. Also, it seems like your arguing for decimal points of more or less country than the Sam hunts. Shouldn’t it be country or not, and this is not country, I checked out some other songs of theirs same thing nearly exactly. I think you may have turned some impressionable listeners on to them and exasperating the problem now.
February 4, 2016 @ 10:10 pm
Jake,
The problem here from the beginning is that you can’t extricate your musical opinion from what is an issue of business, industry, and accounting. It is two different worlds. I don’t give a fuck what you think about Green River Ordinance’s music or how they dress. It’s inconsequential. I am not recommending their music to anyone. This is not an album review. Perhaps I will review their album in the future, and I will broach the subject of just how country their music is. But to call “Red Fire Night” pop just because you don’t like it is idiotic. Point out one song to me in the pop world in the last 60 years driven by a Western Swing-style fiddle. Frankly, you’ve become the drunk asshole of this comments section , and you’re embarrassing yourself and others. And the only reason your comments have been deleted is because you expertly skirted the line of decency, inadvertently or not.
The question here is if Green River Ordinance is more country than the vast majority of the people already on the charts, and the answer is “yes.” In that case, why were they excluded? And what you don’t seem to understand here, is this leads us down a slippery slope of where artists could be excluded from the country charts BECAUSE they are more country than most. Today it’s Green River Ordinance, tomorrow it’s Sturgill Simpson. EVERY country music fan should be insulted and scared of this development, and I can’t think of an issue more fundamental to the cause of saving country music than this one. A lot of people come to this site expecting me to reinforce how awesome they are by singing the praises of bands they already know about, but that’s not my job.
And I don’t give a shit if they’re hipsters, or transvestite purple people eaters. In fact, give me hipsters to hang out with while watching a show as opposed to bigoted rednecks who are afraid and down looking upon anyone who happens to be different from them.
Your criticism and point of view is appreciated here, but on this particular subject you crossed the line. And then you crossed it again, and I let you. But quit throwing it back in my face about how I’m “wrong” because Green River Ordinance doesn’t suit your fancy. For the umpteenth time, that’s not the fucking point.
February 4, 2016 @ 10:29 pm
10-4 bud. Sorry ,not trying to get you worked up.
February 3, 2016 @ 2:28 am
I agree southbound i35, it does completely suck.
Each band member is assigned to rip off a cliche style 1.cut off sleeves guy 2. Corduroy leisure coat guy 3. Henley with turquoise jewelry 4. Nerdy guy white button down black tie. 5. Suspenders to look like rural old time country guy !!!! None of this would have mattered if the song hadn’t sucked so much, mediocre bull$#!+. These guys don’t even want to make country music, but they already failed at making alternative rock.
February 3, 2016 @ 11:04 am
So Jake W doesn’t personally like their music or how they dress. And because of that, we can exclude them from the country charts without any logical explanation, and that’s okay, even though they’re more country than 80% of the other entries on the chart.
February 3, 2016 @ 2:48 am
Feels like a Christian Rock band not a fan…. Not very country sounding to me in MHO.
Also they are listed in Americana Charts seems more like a commercial Rock album so big surprise.
February 3, 2016 @ 11:22 am
Hey, we’re all music fans, and our tastes break down certain paths and not everybody is going to like everything, and not everybody is going to consider something country or not country. The question is when you take a baseline of let’s say the top 20 albums in country and compare them with Green River Ordinance, is Green River Ordinance any less “country” than the other 20, or are they more country? I would contend they’re more country. So if that is the case, why are they being excluded? Why is of all the bands that call themselves country these days, Green River Ordinance is the one being singled out as not being country enough, and would this every be allowed to happen with a major label band?
February 4, 2016 @ 5:42 pm
I agree, I actually looked it up after I saw that you had the same thought as me, Country and Christian the only styles I listen to on the radio, and I haven’t heard them on any stations here. When I looked it up, they are a Christian band, with some albums being sold exclusively through Family Christian Stores. I have nothing against Christian Music, but if we consider these guys Country, we would have to add many other CCM groups that are alt-rock/Country to the charts as well.
Heck, look at High Valley, they have had multiple top 5 country songs in Canada, and a few low charting songs on Country and CCM radio in the US,but they have never charted on the US country charts.
February 4, 2016 @ 6:44 pm
“When I looked it up, they are a Christian band, with some albums being sold exclusively through Family Christian Stores.”
They are not a Christian band. To make such a declarative statement seems a little strange. Dozens of major country artists over the years have put out numerous Christian or gospel albums, including Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Randy Travis, etc. etc., and that didn’t all of a sudden turn them into exclusively Christian artists banned from the country format for forever and forever, amen.
The question is, is this album country or not, especially when you consider the 15-20 albums right now in the Top 25 in country music that are undeniably less country than this one?
February 4, 2016 @ 7:02 pm
I didn’t mean that they are exclusively a Christian band, IMO, most of the CCM bands that are worth listening to are multi-format bands. I simply meant that they have stated that they are Christians, and CCM outlets have sold their music. I consider Switchfoot a Christian band even though they have had #1 songs on top 40 and rock radio.
To answer your question, I would consider this to be as country or more country than most of the albums in the top 25. Granted I’m only a few songs in, but what I have heard so far is a nice mix of Bluegrass and Southern rock. It’s not catchy radio country, but it’s the stuff I want to put the top down on my car and drive through the Ozarks to. I was turned off at first by “Red Fire Night” because it sounded like a hipster song, but after the other songs I have heard it still feels cheap, but the other songs make up for it.
February 3, 2016 @ 4:22 am
Well the main factors in getting on a particular Billboard chart has nothing to with some execs listening to the music and deciding what chart it goes on. If it was released as a country album and was registered with Roxi and Allmusic.com as country then its country and it in fact has to be registered with Roxi and allmusic.com. then sales and radio plays as reported to Neilson soundscan determine if it actually charts on Billboard
February 3, 2016 @ 11:18 am
When I spoke to the manager of Green River Ordinance, the first thing I asked him was how the metadata for the songs and album were filled out. To me, this was the most deciding factor if Green River Ordinance had a legitimate beef. The reason Jason Isbell charted #1 on three separate charts with his last album is because he filled out his metadata saying that he belonged in all three categories. The reason an artist like Sam Hunt ends up on country charts is for the same reason. Green River Ordinance filled out their metadata saying they were country. Regardless of how any of us feel about their music, I think we can all agree it is more country than the majority of what is found on Billboard’s “country” chart. So if the band filled out their metadata properly, what gives Billboard’s chart managers the right to overrule the preference of the artist when they haven’t been doing this in the past for artists that are clearly not country? Justin Timberlake just released a single to country that was released in pop two years ago—the same exact song. All Timberlake did was change the metadata, and re-released the song. Billboard is charting the song in country without question. It’s a double standard by Billboard and something we have a responsibility to question.
If Green River Ordinance is the demarcation line of what is country and what isn’t, they hey, that’s fine with me. Then you just excluded 80% of major label artists from ever charting on the country charts ever again, and country music is saved. But in truth, Green River Ordinance was singled out. This would have never happened with a major label act.
February 3, 2016 @ 3:12 pm
Trigger, How do we fix this?
Let’s face it, we can call out the country music “establishment” when they pull stunts like this, but beyond that, if nothing is ever done, things will not change.
Do we have everyone and their brother bombard Jim Ask(iss)er’s office with complaints?
Obviously we all vote on what we think is country with our wallets, but it seems like that is not always enough.
February 3, 2016 @ 3:51 pm
That’s a good question. If it can happen to Green River Ordinance, it can happen to anyone. That’s the reason it needs to be made right in THIS case, meaning we can’t just complain and move on. I’ve been pondering on this.
February 3, 2016 @ 11:44 pm
And by anyone I assume you mean not just country acts and the genre in which the perform but all genres. Look at the rock charts… most of it is electro/techno knock offs for the past several years… Jazz has become an elevator shell of itself with a few exceptions… Americana is such a loose term to begin with…
I am, beginning to wonder if the charts even really matter to anyone except young people who like to use chart stats as proof their favorite musician doesn’t suck or old people to prove that music was better back in the day.
I go to club so I follow the dance charts and that is just as sad as any other genre charts IMO. Copycats, cliches, and tired production everywhere.
February 5, 2016 @ 3:13 pm
It will be interesting to see if Billboard pushes back any on listing a Justin Timberlake album on the country charts if really does release one.
February 5, 2016 @ 5:28 pm
Not a chance they will. They’re not pushing back on his single “Drink You Away” which was already released in pop years ago.
February 3, 2016 @ 7:23 am
As already said by a few, the question really isn’t how country or not country they are, or this song is. The question is how on earth this can be labelled as not country while Sam Cunt and Old Dominion don’t get a second look at the crap they release.
February 3, 2016 @ 11:02 am
Thank you.
February 3, 2016 @ 7:36 am
And we care what the radio personnel think because…?
Seriously this is the whole point of the last article you wrote about letting go of the radio crutch, because it is a hindrance to so many artists. Why should some artists abandon radio but not Green River Ordinance? is GRO a special case exempt from the rules of abandoning radio if radio doesn’t work for you?
Who cares whether some suit who’s probably never heard of the McReynolds brothers thinks it’s not “Country?”
February 3, 2016 @ 8:41 am
This article wasn’t about Green River Ordinance not getting on country radio. It was about them being excluded from the Billboard Country charts. I gave a listen to the song. Musically, it sounds like a pop country version of the Turnpike Troubadours. And even TT wasn’t excluded from the Billboard country charts. And GRO is certainly more country than the likes of Sam Hunt and Kelsea Ballerini.
I think this article fits in nicely with the “country radio crutch” article. It’s another indicator that the game is rigged and maybe artists shouldn’t waste their time trying to play it.
February 3, 2016 @ 11:09 am
Yeah, this was not a country radio article whatsoever. You kind of missed the point Fuzzy.
However there is a radio component. One of the things Billboard threw back at Green River Ordinance was that they didn’t have a country single on radio to help bolster their argument that they were country. But they actually did. “Red Fire Night” is charting on country-based charts in Texas, and on Mediabase.
February 3, 2016 @ 11:46 pm
I think this is why there is a dirth of quality women on country radio. They have stopped playing the game. And so have any males worth their salt.
February 3, 2016 @ 8:44 am
I see where both of you are coming from. I sampled this CD on Amazon, and it is not country enough for me, but it is no less country then some of the other s*** on the radio.
But there is a difference between radio and the country charts. I have basically boycotted country radio because they don’t play the songs that I want to hear. But I also don’t pick my music based on the country charts. I was listening to Chris Stapleton 6 months before he was big on the charts.
It’s one thing to not have your songs played on the radio. But being able to say that you were number 7 or number 3 on the Hot Country charts can be a big difference in an artist’s career.
February 3, 2016 @ 11:31 am
No, I think it does matter you’re kind of saying judge each artist on the weight of what came before them instead of a case by case basis if every artist sucks this will cause a constant decline in the whole of country music. Now I don’t want to sound smart, I want to sound like an asshole. Everyone of you should, the one time billboard gets it right you call them out cause you want Sam hunt and others thrown out too, well we can throw them out ourselves because aside from the fact that they are d-bags, its just not really “COOL” it may seem cool to kids from thirty yards away, but the ugly truth is inauthentic, country as a fashion trend, 100$ haircut, hipsters like this up close are fake as the day is long and will be forgotten with time .
I hope this band breaks up; they suck, if you like them you suck. Who cares if they exclude you if you are country? If your music is GENUINE, then your fans will know it and it would be amended soon. If your charting single at all you probably have enough fans to do some thing about it. These guys don’t want to be country they want to be eli young band mixed with hipsters and third eye blind. They are just waiting to sell out, don’t even earn the money to make an album; kickstarter campaign. They begged, now they are begging for major label deal on their knees with their mouths open I might add. Ashamed these guys supposedly come from Texas. Get it together, I know the majority of us wouldn’t listen to these nsync country wannabes.
February 3, 2016 @ 3:40 pm
Hey-
My name is Jamey and I play guitar in GRO. Some great feedback on here, and I really appreciate Saving Country Music for telling the story. Been a huge fan of this site for quite some time!
Jake W, its totally cool you dont like the music. We are not for everyone, but we do have some great fans who love our music and we have built a great career out of doing what we do. We are thankful for all the support we have been shown over the years and grateful to get to make music for a living. I just wanted to chime in and fact check some of the negatives you are spewing.
-We have been a band for 15 years (since we were 15 years old). So we wont be breaking up anytime soon.
-We did not do a kickstarter for this album. We did a kickstarter for our album “Under Fire” in 2011 after we intentionally chose to walk away and leave our major label deal with Capitol Records. We left Capitol b/c they did not like our southern more “country” sounding stuff and wanted us to write, record, and mix our sophmore album in 2 months after we had just been on the road for 300 days straight. We went on to independently release some music we really liked that the label was not a fan of, and it just so happened that it really resonated w/ people in the “country” genre, which was a really cool thing for us. We weren’t trying to be country, pop, rock, folk or anything….just make good music and sing songs that meant something to us.
-When we did do the kickstarter in 2011, we were one of the first bands to ever do it and it was at the time one of the most successful music kickstarters that had ever been done. Our fans also really dug it.
-We had an offer from a major label to buy that album (“Under Fire”) from us and release it. But we turned them down.
-Our last 4 EP’s and this full length album were written, recorded, and paid for completely independently by us.
-For this album we entered into a partnership w/ a great new label called Residence Music to release our new album “Fifteen” and it is distributed through Universal. So we are not “begging” for a deal, we already have one.
-We were all born and raised in Fort Worth, TX and grew up there together. I still live in Fort Worth, just up the road from where I grew up. We have also had a ton of support from the good folks in the Lone Star State. Last week we had the #1 song on the Texas Music Chart and the Texas Regional Radio Reporter. We have also have had 5 additional top 4 songs in the TX Country Format.
-I have never had a $100 haircut. My wife’s best friend cuts my hair. I normally pay her $20.
-We never set out to make a “Country” music, or “Pop” music, or even a “Folk” music. We just sat out to write songs that meant something to us and have a ton of fun doing it. It was neat for us that when we started doing that and started writing the music we wanted to write, that we found a home in the country format. Country fans, TX Country radio, and Sirius XM The Highway (we have had 4 singles on the station) have all embraced us. They have embraced us for who we are and have supported the music we are making.
-The album was filed w/ the “Country” meta data (it debuted at #2 on iTunes Country), we headlined the world largest honky tonk last weekend and this weekend we will be playing the Grand Ol Opry (for the 3rd time in a year), we have several country stations all over the US (including Sirius Xm The Highway) playing our music, and we have shared the stage w/ acts like the Zac Brown band, Merle Haggard, Chris Stapelton, Old Crow Medicine Show, Miranda Lambert, Clint Black, Little Big Town, Eli Young Band, and Blake Shelton. It just doesn’t make sense that one guys opinion gets to decide what Genre we are or are not. Having a top 10 Country album would have been a big deal to us, and we feel like that that was taken from us.
-We worked hard on this album and our fans spent their hard earned money to buy it and show their support. Billboard put us in a box and it has told all of the country fans that have supported us over the years that their opinion does not matter. It has told all of the Red Dirt Country radio listeners and The Highway listeners that their format and stations do not count and I guess are not “country” enough. And it has told all of our fans that they are not “country enough”.
After all this is said and done we are still grateful to play music and thankful that people come out to our shows and listen to our songs. We don’t take that for granted. We just want to be treated fairly.
February 4, 2016 @ 2:00 pm
Jamey, before this article appeared I hadn’t heard of GRO. After reading your response, I just purchased Fifteen and Chasing Down The Wind. Good luck to you.
February 4, 2016 @ 6:27 pm
Hey man, thanks for the post. At first I thought that you were just another alt band that was trying to sound country, but your story makes alot of sense. I’ll have to listen to the full album on Spotify and see if it’s something I want to purchase.
I have a question for you if you have time. Do you know what Residence will do for you that they(under Centricity) didn’t do for High Valley? I really thought that High Valley had a chance at doing well on US Country radio, but it seems Centicity somehow dropped the ball there. With Residence being a part of Centricity, are they learning from mistakes?
Thanks.
March 16, 2016 @ 9:26 am
Well stated Jamey. I’ve been a fan of GRO for years and have met all of them. They are true, genuine musicians who love what they do, and truly appreciate the ability to play music for a living and their fans. I have no idea what climbed up Jake’s rear end, but he is completely wrong about these guys.
I consider myself fortunate to have discovered GRO when I did, and will continue to appreciate and support them any way I can.
February 4, 2016 @ 1:05 pm
Classy response Jamey. Way to set the record straight.
February 3, 2016 @ 12:58 pm
I haven’t had a chance to listen to GRO’s latest but just loved their last CD. I felt that one was definitely country, albeit with some pop and rock influences showing, but certainly way more country that a lot of crap out there that’s purportedly country. Seems messed up to pick on them suddenly.
February 3, 2016 @ 2:57 pm
It clearly should be a candidate for the Country chart.
February 3, 2016 @ 9:39 pm
I’ll accept the comments you’ve made as genuine, and I do feel like I should apologize. Some of the things I said are going to far, but they should be taken as satirical and exaggerated when it is obvious I am not stating a fact but an opinion. Anyone who has seen my posts know I am very hard nosed when it comes to music; I cannot apologize for this terrible song’s lack of substance. If you did not set out to make a country album then why are you crying because you didn’t get the country label. You’ve not said anything that defends your integrity you’ve only defended your right to not have any and still complain that your not getting the correct exposure. Life ain’t fair, but its better that way ; maybe next time you’ll write a country song instead of a pop song. A great voice, perfect guitar leads, a fiddle, tight harmonies mean nothing if the lyrics are devoid of substance.
I will not accept any more Luke Bryan’s, Jason aldeans, little big towns, dirt road diaries, anthems or memoirs, no more over simplification of women, relationships,, drunken sex(be it by a campfire, a bar or the back of your jacked up truck), no more ode to your jacked up truck, or a work ethic you don’t have, saying George Jones does not magically invoke country magic upon your mediocre cliche song writing. Some things are flat out bad for a whole genre of music we have learned that lesson well over past ten years. This song is trash and it is bad for country music.
I apologize to the journalist for the off topic comments I am bad about it I know. To the point yes it is not fair that one terrible artist can be labeled country and all terrible artist can’t I agree, but I don’t care. “Backstreets back, ye haw” should be the name of this song for as much as its worth.
February 4, 2016 @ 8:49 am
Jake W……my thoughts exactly.
I am so tired of the shitty music that is being packaged and sold as country music.
My opinion of what is country and what is not, has probably narrowed in the last 5 years, since diving deeper into Waylon and Willie’s catalog of music. I pretty much just listen to outlaw country, with an occasional foray into some alt country.
When Hank Sr. wanted to do an album of recitations and such, MGM was afraid that the country music buyer would be upset if they were to purchase that album, thinking it would be the same type of Hank Sr. music that was being played on the radio. The solution was to label it as Luke The Drifter instead of Hank Sr.
Maybe the solution is for Billboard to break their country music charts into sub-genres for each type.
Bro Country
Alt Country
Outlaw Country
Classic Country
Maybe Bro Country and Pop Country should come with warning labels.
“This music was created using auto tune and other studio embellishments in an effort to sound like pop music. This music has been labeled country music in an effort to deceive the listener into thinking that this is actual country music.”
This scenario has already played out once before, in the early 1970’s. As consumers, we have the ultimate control in the future direction of country music. But, there has to be enough of us to vote with our wallets by supporting true country music and rejecting all imitation country by not supporting it in any way. Unfortunately, the majority of folks think that all this shit on the radio is country music, so we have to re-educate them on the difference.
I better stop before I have a novel here…..
February 4, 2016 @ 7:46 pm
I agree, I think country should be divided into more definite sub-genres. It seems that Country music has gone from a style of music to anything that references rural life, or has some twang.
I think better sub-genres for what we call country would be:
Country(traditional stuff)
Southern Rock(yeah, most modern country is southern rock with country lyrics)
Hillbilly Pop
Redneck Rap
Bluegrass(I think some people here are getting Bluegrass and Traditional Country mixed up)
BTW… did you know that George Strait was the first Country singer to use auto-tune, way back in 2001?
February 4, 2016 @ 6:17 pm
Do we even know if it would have charted? It is at 103 on the Billboard 200, but there are Country albums higher than it that are pretty low on the country 25, It does not show up on the CCM chart either, and I’m sure that most of the albums on that chart probably sold lower than the low selling Country albums.
I’m wondering if CCM sales are counted separate from general market sales. It if sold half the units in the CCM market sellers, and the other half in regular sellers it may reflect that on the charts.
Another reason I’m wondering if charts are counted this way is because Lecrae’s Church Clothes 3 was 6th on the rap charts, above several big name rappers,while the album was only at 4 on the Christian charts. If they aren’t charted differently it means that 3 praise and worship albums sold more albums than Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Future, Fetty Wap, and several other rappers. From this it only makes sense that CCM market sales are counted separate from general market sales.
February 4, 2016 @ 6:27 pm
“Fifteen” would have charted #7 on the Billboard Country Album’s chart if it would have been allowed to be included there. That would have also been good enough to be considered the “highest charting debut” of the week. Though these things may not matter to many fans, for a band trying to make a name for itself, these accomplishments can be significant.
I’m not sure why people keep bringing up the Christian music charts. This is not a Christian album, does not have distinctively Christian songs, was not marketed to the Christian market, and from my understanding, the metadata was not filled out for Christian music.
February 4, 2016 @ 6:47 pm
I saw reviews for the album on several CCM sites, I didn’t read them because I thought they were just another Alt-Rock worship band(I mostly listen to Country and Hard Christian Rock.) couple that with the fact that they are on a Centricity records sublabel made me think that this would be released to CCM outlets like some of their older stuff was.
BTW, thanks for posting this article, It made me give a band that I would have passed by a chance.
February 6, 2016 @ 2:29 am
“…….Green River Ordinance clearly has more signifiers for what is traditionally considered country, then we enter a slippery slope where long-standing music institutions are dictating what is country or not using very flawed reasoning. ..”
I’m afraid that ship sailed way back with Taylor Swift’s ” Country ” music .