GREEN RIVER ORDINANCE

 Green River Ordinance was born in Fort Worth, Texas- from brothers Geoff and Jamey Ice, Josh Jenkins, Joshua Wilkerson and Denton Hunker. They recorded their first EP in the basement of their church, a CD that sold out its first pressing in just a few months. An upheaval of popular local support led them to open for Bon Jovi in Dallas in 2006.

They found that certain chemistry would take place as they all worked together. In between shows they would sit around and work on songs. Each person would bring their own ideas to the band; sometimes it would just be a riff, or a tune. Sometimes it was a whole piece. But together they found that they would create a free flow of ideas, as they encouraged and pushed each other forward. At the end of the process after much work and challenging each other, the song would be complete.

“We’ve always had a vision about what we wanted to do musically, and we’re still getting it done,” Jenkins reflects. “We’ve stayed true.” The full length album Out of My Hands is due out February 24, 2009.

ANGEL TAYLOR

Sitting next to Angel Taylor, her charisma is as palpable as her music itself. Talking with her about the passionate swirl of her debut release, Love Travels, the 20 year-old singer-songwriter is quick to share stories about her inspirations, but those stories fast become secondary to the true magic of her talent as a songwriter: The 12 tracks on Love Travels are more than just personal missives that Angel Taylor has set to music, they are living and breathing experiences that we have all shared. The names may change, but the stories remain the same.

“Anyone who has ever wanted to be loved very deeply by someone, but hasn’t, will totally be able to grab hold of these songs,” says Taylor. “That’s what this album is about – wanting it so bad, not having it, and wondering why… It’s a lot of questions.”

And while Taylor doesn’t pretend to have any answers, there’s no escaping how good it feels to get engulfed by her insecurities, romanced by her vulnerability, and swooned by her tender lyrics and swaying melodies. Feeling self-conscious about listening to love songs written by a girl barely removed from her teens? Try and remember when love hurt the most, that high school spark that never flickered into a flame, or the flame that fanned out as quickly as it flared, making everything around you ache and throb. In a lot of ways, the love Angel Taylor is writing about is the most pure, untainted by a lifetime of experiences that too often devour the idealism of the helpless romantic buried in us all.