Ordered gruel in a voice as low as country music (9)
I believe the answer is:
bluegrass
'country music' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'ordered gruel in a voice' is the wordplay.
'ordered' indicates an anagram.
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'a voice' becomes 'bass' (bass is a kind of voice).
'gruel' anagrammed gives 'luegr'.
'luegr' inserted into 'bass' is 'BLUEGRASS'.
'as low as' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for bluegrass that I've seen before include "Kind of country music" , "American hillbilly music" , "A type of country music" , "Style of country music from Kentucky" , "Style of US country music" .)