Jodi Jones played protest songs. Willy Tea Taylor played story songs. And Jordan Smart split the difference during his hourlong headline performance at the Columbus, Ohio, Folk Around Find Out tour stop April 2 at Natalie’s Grandview. 

The gig ended with all the musicians sharing the stage, one mic and the chorus of “Who Would Jesus Bomb” sans musical accompaniment and with the sold-out house on harmony: 

“Would it be kids in Palestine, or how ’bout Vietnam/would Jesus bomb the atheists, the Muslims or the Jews/I want you to ask yourself, what would Jesus do?”

Playing acoustic guitar, blowing a harmonica and singing like a genetic mashup of “Masters of War”-era Bob Dylan, a young John Prine and Jesse Welles, Smart opened the nightcap mocking immigrant-haters on the rambunctious “Pickle Song,” which had the audience screaming along. He then silenced them by ruminating on his sobriety on the tender “Apple Don’t Fall.”

Smart nodded to his influences on a talkin’ blues called “Song for Prine;” decried the U.S. health-care system on “Confessions of a CEO;” and previewed his next release – and his desire for women to take over the world – on “Carry on the Fight,” a co-write with former Old Crow Medicine Show man Mason Via. 

The Ohio-born, Kentucky-based singer/songwriter had friends and family in the audience, making for a special performance. And while they were obviously on hand to support their kinfolk, the extended Smart family – and the rest of us – wisely listened hard to Taylor and Jones’ respective 45- and 20-minute offerings. 

Dressed for the outdoors in overalls, shades, a hat and with a bushy beard, Taylor sipped a glass of red wine and plinked out minimalist story-songs like “My Mother, My Brother and Me” on a battered, four-string acoustic guitar. He also told stories about listening to Ram Dass while doing leatherwork in his underwear and watching “the Jeffersons” with his bemused daughter in a motel. 

“So life’s weird I guess,” he said.

Taylor remembered pets past on the moving, a cappella “My Dog” and cast a spell in memory of his boozing grandmother on “Big Jim’s Guitar” and “Bakersfield.” 

With a banjo-pickin’ accompanist at her side, Jones played a guitar emblazoned with flowers and sung about “how terrible things are” and led a “yell-along” on “Hard Times.” Having recently quit her day job, Jones addressed credit-card debt on “I Owe My Soul to Capital One,” her huge, quavering voice belying her diminutive size. 

She deserved more stage time.