My conversation with Denton Hunker of Green River Ordinance
November 9, 9:57 AM Milwaukee Concerts Examiner Arika Kaosa

This past week I had the opportunity to speak with Denton Hunker, drummer for the group Green River Ordinance. The band will be on the road with American Idol winner David Cook. The tour will make a stop in Milwaukee Nov. 11th at the Riverside Theatre. Below is our conversation.

AK: Green River Ordinance will be in Milwaukee on the 11th of this month with David Cook. I saw online that you start with him on the 4th. Do you have any high expectations on this tour or do you hope to gain a new fan base? What do you expect on this upcoming tour with David?

Denton Hunker: We’re all really excited. This is our second time to go on the road with David. We were on the road with him two months ago. The first run was really amazing and we became really good friends with the band and the crew and David himself. It will almost be like a little family reunion. The last tour we did with him was more centered on the East coast so this time it will be nice to focus on the Midwest and West coast fans. David’s fans are incredible and they are so great to us. There’s nothing like playing to 1,000 people a night.

AK: I have to ask, what is your opinion on shows like American Idol?

DH: A lot of the guys in the band watch the show a lot. I have never watched it in depth myself. The guys will be in the van discussing what Idol is going to win and how their performance was on episodes. I think they are looking forward to the upcoming season. I enjoy watching at the beginning with people auditioning with all the funny people going in there!

AK: Yeah, it’s interesting and makes for good TV! The band is out of Fort Worth, TX. How was it first starting out playing shows in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area? I’m not really well versed in the music scene out there.

DH: The band started when Geoff and Jamey were 13 and 15. They started with the sole purpose to be in the middle school talent show and play “Sweet Home Alabama”. Josh and Josh met Jaime and Jeff in high school and I got connected with them in college. They’re all from Fort Worth and I’m actually from Dallas. They started playing shows and they got the name Green River Ordinance from a metal road sign they had in their parents garage. They thought it sounded cool and kind of had the ring of Creedence Clearwater Revival. At that time they were playing more of the blues cover tunes like CCR and stuff like that. They were still too young to play in bars but the bars would still let them play and their moms would have to drive them to play shows. Green River Ordinance has a really good background in Fort Worth and as we got bigger and more serious our sound changed. New members came in and when Josh Jenkins came in the music changed. from blues rock to a more pop rock sound. Josh Jenkins was more into Matchbox 20 and Third Eye Blind so the sound started to change in that direction. We then started playing venues that were geared to more mainstream music opposed to old blues pool halls. The music scene in Fort Worth and Dallas is really a broad spectrum. Fort Worth kind of has an artsy background in music. It also does have it’s big names like Bowling For Soup came out of Fort Worth. One of our heroes, Flickerstick, came out of Fort Worth as well. We did a lot of touring with Flickerstick in their hay day and they’re really good friends of ours and thank them for everything they’ve done for us. Dallas has another huge music scene and has a lot of awesome stuff going on. We’ve had a really good fan base and our biggest fan base is home. We love playing Texas and we’re really excited for the 7th of November. We’re playing with David Cook in Dallas.

AK: That will be a nice homecoming show!

DH: Yeah, it will be a great homecoming show. We’ve been on the road since June and we haven’t played Texas in it feels like forever.

AK: The new album came out this year and your single has received some radio airplay. How has reception been to both?

DH: It’s obviously really awesome to have the privilege and the honor of radio stations playing, “Come On”. It’s been great for people to enjoy our music enough to play our music and we really appreciate all the radio stations playing us and supporting us. It’s really cool to jump in the van and as we’re driving somewhere and have the radio on and our song comes one. It’s really surreal to hear something that you’ve created being played on national radio. It’s a lot of fun. Here’s a funny story about that. About two months ago we were in Maryland and we were playing with a band called needtobreathe. We met a guy who was a crabber who would catch and sell crabs for food who was a fan. He said that next time that we were in town he’d hook us up and when we came back he definitely hooked us up with 30 blue crabs! So we had 3 huge paper sacks of crabs, a roll of brown paper, and some mallets that he gave us. We didn’t have a place to go eat all this so we just pulled the van over in the parking lot and sat down in the parking lot and ate crabs and “Come On” played on the radio. It was a really cool moment! We were out in Baltimore in the middle of this parking lot eating blue crabs and “Come On” was on the radio. It was a really cool experience!

AK: That is definitely something to remember! Very cool!

DH: Yeah and with our fan base checking us out on Twitter we get messages from them saying I just heard your song in so and so. It’s neat to get those little messages and it’s very inspiring. That’s why we do this, so we can inspire people. It’s so cool.

AK: What do you hope the Milwaukee audience takes from your performance the 11th?

DH: Well I hope they take a CD! I know they will be there to see David Cook but I hope they are pleasantly surprised from our performance. I hope that when we play they hear and listen to a band that makes them want to dance and have fun. We’re not out there to make a big statement for anything. We just want people to have fun. Of course, we hope people take a CD or a shirt from us as well!

AK: Some merchandise, that’s how you make money on the road these days!

You can check Green River Ordinance at their website below.

greenriverordinance.com

-AK