Fort Worth’s Green River Ordinance giving away album online

by Steve Smith of West and Clear

I read an article in Wired magazine recently about free being the future of business and in that article is a story about this Brazilian group called Banda Calypso that literally gives away its music. They distribute masters of their CDs and CD liner art to street vendor networks in towns it plans to tour, with full agreement that the vendors will copy the CDs, sell them and keep all the money. That’s OK, because selling discs isn’t Calypso’s main source of income. And how’s that working for them? Not bad. They’ve paid for a private jet.

So I thought of this when Fort Worth’s Green River Ordinance sent us an email saying they’re giving away a copy of their 2005 album “The Beauty of Letting Go” for free at FreeGRO.net. Are they angling for a Gulfstream? Not exactly.

“We decided to give that CD away to show our appreciation for our fans, to build an email list, and to broaden our fan base,” said GRO guitarist Josh Wilkerson. “Almost anyone will take a free CD.”

He’s right about that. But is it worth it? I gotta say I liked it, but I like powerpop. It may be a few years old, but “Breath of Life” is going into heavy rotation on my iPod. And now I think I need to check these guys out live, too.

Besides Wilkerson, GRO is made up of Josh Jenkins (vocals and acoustic), Jamey Ice (electric), Geoff Ice (bass) and Denton Hunker (drums). They are working on their first major label release for Capitol Records right now, and they just completed two weeks of recording with producer Mark Endert (Maroon 5, The Fray, Madonna) and will begin sessions in Memphis, Tenn., with producer, Paul Ebersold (3 Doors Down, Sister Hazel, Third Day) next week.

Check ‘em out. I think you’ll find you get more than your money’s worth.