Jarod Grubb probably unintentionally hoodwinked people who didn’t really know him. They saw a baseball player, a skilled athlete, but Grubb lived another life away from sports. His early training as a saxophonist and classical pianist served him well when he decided to begin playing guitar. He punctuated his time between baseball and college classes with songwriting. Everyone, however, soon understood Grubb had much more to offer than just playing baseball.
The first important mile marker in his professional journey came when the Montana born Grubb won the Colgate Country Showdown and played for 3,000 appreciative music lovers. Grubb parlayed that success into his first single release, “Tiki Bar on the Beach”. The jovial single heralded his arrival as more than a performer, but a writer capable of invoking lighthearted revelry in intelligently composed songs.
His new single “What She’s Drinkin’ On” isn’t a country song. Grubb can’t be pigeonholed that way. It is thoroughly pop, despite the presence of guitar and even some time-tested rock dynamics. There’s no question that a significant portion of the backing track has a pre-programmed feel but it’s difficult to say it’s the whole track. The guitar has the fire and sound of live performance and the bite it brings to the track is welcome.
Much of the song revolves around Grubb’s vocal. He has ample skill and charisma, particularly the latter, and his talented phrasing will entertain many. The production applies light effects to his voice nut the natural pyrotechnics he drives from his performance are plenty. It isn’t like he’s tackling thorny or complex subject matter, however. “What She’s Drinkin’ On” is an open-ended title songwriters could take in multiple directions. Grubb keeps things simple, though, and writes about the different manifestations of a woman’s personality depending on her beverage of choice.
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It has some aspects of a catalog, but those characteristics are minor. We get what the woman does when she drinks red wine, bourbon, and beer. Grubb constructs the arrangement in such a way that it creates good-natured suspense about the outcomes of each drink and the chorus pays off without ever coming across as heavy-handed. Many listeners, as well, will enjoy how Grubb alternates the arrangement between passages where his voice carries the day and others when the music and Grubb surge forth together.
It should be a popular track, even as summer dims, Pandemic or not, the human experience never stops. Grubb deserves kudos, as well, for never depicting his subject as cheap or tawdry – the potential for doing so, even inadvertently, is real. It’s about good times here, no judgments, and Jarod Grubb’s voice inhabits “What She’s Drinkin’ On” with a welcoming spirit. It encourages you to keep coming back for more – multiple go-arounds with this track and his future releases as well. Many will.
He isn’t attempting to save the world. He isn’t trying to make you rethink the possibilities of song. Jarod Grubb’s ambition is twofold – he wants to express himself however he likes and entertain the largest possible audience. He accomplishes the first, without question, and does everything necessary to position himself to do the second. “What She’s Drinkin’ On” will capture the fancy of many.
Jodi Marxbury
The music of Jarod Grubb has been heard all over the world in partnership with the radio plugging services offered by Musik and Film Radio Promotions Division. Learn more https://musikandfilm.com