Green and Ingram rock Disco Rodeo

The knob on the beat-up car radio has long ago settled on a local country station, letting Pat Green sing about the highway stretching before you. The sun dips into the dirt on the western horizon as the lukewarm Lonestar slips between your lips. Your shirt sticks to your chest as you stare out the windshield wondering how it is that you came to Texas, but forgetting yourself somewhere near San Antonio; it hits you that this is a part of the world like no other.

There are a few things that are distinctly Texan: Shinerbok beer, high school football and humidity that never breaks. Many people proudly proclaim that they are Texans: I am not one of them. But tonight I, too, will don my “Farm Hands Feel Better” T-shirt and an old pair of boots and head down to watch two Texans, opener Jack Ingram and cult icon Pat Green light up a Raleigh stage.

For years Jack Ingram has been the calmer side of Texas country, bringing to the stage a muted version of the headliner’s stage presence and rockish energy. In 2002, he tried to kick it up another notch with his aptly titled Electric album, and earlier this year returned with the lower key Acoustic Motel earlier this year.  

Like many others who might be classified as Texas country artists, Ingram’s collection of works is weighted heavily with live CDs, because, above all, a Texas country star shines brightest on stage. This is music you can sing along to: music that works best when punctuated with drunken “whoops” shouted high into smoky-bar air, or belted out at top of your lungs while ambling down a lonely Texan highway.  

Pat Green is the quintessential icon of the new generation of Texas music. He has taken the reigns from Texas stars of old to capture the hearts and ears of thousands of Longhorns and Aggies today and to define a genre that reaches beyond traditional country music and into something far more authentic.

In one of Green’s more popular songs he screams prophetically, “I gave up on Nashville a long time ago.” Indeed, the “country” music of Austin and College Station is a far cry from the bland pop country that gets filtered through CMT and VH1. This brand of rock country is about whooping tail. It’s not your Faith Hill, your Shania or your Rascal Flats. This is Willie and Waylon and a handle of green label and a three-liter bottle of diet Rite. It’s the first time you dipped Copenhagen and didn’t boot. This is music about not just living life, but rocking it out.

Not only will Ingram and Green bring a refreshing dash of Texas to the typically rote mix of country music that comes through the Triangle, but they are doing so in what might be the best venue we have to offer. Disco Rodeo’s two-tiered balconies wrap around a dance floor that hugs the stage so you cannot help but be close. The venue’s wide stage and open dance floor provide better sight lines than the Lincoln Theater and more breathing room than Cats Cradle.

Truth be told, if you hate country music, if you’ve given it your best shot and find that it doesn’t have enough “bling” or giddy teenage girls, then this probably isn’t for you. But, if you like a streak of something a little less than easy in your listening, you should come let Pat and Jack give you a ride down through Texas country—a country you haven’t heard.