The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances; if there is any reaction, both
are transformed. – Carl Jung
Assuming Jung is right, the same logic would dictate that the meeting of five personalities would
create an equal reaction, five-fold in its power to change.
Such a meeting has taken place. Despite the remote Texas setting, five boys found each other.
Accident, inevitability, chance, fate…no one will ever be able to explain whatever it is that draws
the colors of the spectrum together into one stream of pure white light.
Green River Ordinance was born from this light. Brothers Geoff and Jamey Ice, Josh Jenkins,
Joshua Wilkerson and Denton Hunker transformed their lives into one singular dream. The dream
of creating music. While most kids their age were worrying about high school, they were writing
and performing their own music.
Guitarist Joshua Wilkerson’s father played in bands, touring with The Beach Boys, Cheap Trick,
The Guess Who and The Fabulous Thunderbirds. Brothers Jamey and Geoff Ice were raised by
music-loving parents who even followed The Grateful Dead at one time. Mr. Ice also has his own
country-western band, and encouraged his boys to play blues and classic rock at an early age.
Singer/guitarist Josh Jenkins’ father was a country singer and songwriter. He had Josh decked
out in old-fashioned western clothes and singing in local oprys as a small child.
With all the music in their lives, all they needed was a common denominator that would bring
them together. Songwriting, it seems, was that catalyst.
Jamey and Geoff formed the original GRO, with a different lineup of musicians that came and
went as time went on. At the tender ages of 16 and 14, they were seasoned club performers who
already had a local following. When Josh joined the band they discovered the bond they had in
writing songs. There was great freedom in shaping and hashing out the songs that they wrote. It
was the most incredible experience. When Joshua and Denton joined the band the songwriting
was taken to a whole new level. There was a certain magic that happened when all five of them
got into a room together to write songs.
They found that every one was able to contribute to the songwriting process; and that certain
chemistry would took 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 between the five of them, 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.
They recorded their first EP in the basement of their church, a CD that sold out its first pressing in
just a few months. While still not old enough to be customers in the bars they played, they played
to packed houses. An upheaval of popular local support led them to open for Bon Jovi in Dallas in
2006.