JJ Grey and Mofro - This River

  by Dave Goodwin

published: 12 / 7 / 2013

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Currently touring Europe in support of their new album ‘This River’ is are a band from Jacksonville, Florida called JJ Grey & Mofro. The tour itself swings through the U.K., Spain, Switzerland, Netherlands, and Germany. JJ made his recording debut in 2001 with an album entitled ‘Blackwater’ and followed that up three years later with ‘Lochloosa’, which incidentally have both seen reissues by current label Alligator. Three years after that JJ Grey released his debut on the Alligator label, ‘Country Ghetto’, followed by 2008’s ‘Orange Blossoms’. Grey stepped further into the mainstream view with the release of 2010’s ‘Georgia Warhorse’ which spawned the single ‘The Sweetest Thing’. Over the years JJ has played countless festivals, including Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Wakarusa, Austin City Limits Festival, Byron Bay Blues Festival (Australia), Montreal Jazz Festival and Fuji Rock (Japan), and has shared stages with the likes of Lenny Kravitz, BB King, the Allman Brothers Band, the Black Crowes, Los Lobos, Jeff Beck, Ben Harper, Booker T. Jones, Mavis Staples and many others. JJ’s songs have appeared in both film and television, including ‘House’, ‘Flashpoint’, ‘Crash’, ‘Friday Night Lights’, ‘The Glades’, ‘The Deadliest Catch’ and the film ‘The Hoot’. In November 2009, and his first film score was for the critically acclaimed, Emmy Award-winning documentary ‘The Good Soldier’. So, after all that you could say that our JJ is a seasoned artist. And it clearly shows in the first couple of tracks of this album - the funky heavy groove of ‘Your Lady, She’s Shady’ and the southern soul sound of ‘Somebody Else’. It's all there in perfect timing and execution. ‘Tame a Wild One’ involves a slight pop-soul country diversion reminiscent of early Dr Hook, whilst ‘99 Shades of Crazy’ takes the road through rough country blues. The title track is a lovely deep soul ballad and not the only slow boat in here. ‘The Ballad of Larry Webb’ and ‘Write a Letter’ tug at the heart strings and indeed command good closed eye listening compared with the more upbeat ‘Florabama’ and ‘Standing on Edge’. Standout for yours truly though is on route 9 the penultimate track ‘Harp and Drums’ which should have been titled harmonica and brass with its just over of 6 minutes of totally funked -out soul that would have made the likes of the Funk Brothers tap a few toes. Sporting instruments such as guitar (Gibson SG, Gibson 337, and Gibson Southern Jumbo Acoustic, with vintage Fender Showman w/ Tone Tubby 2x12, Fender Super Reverb, and Fender Champ amps), keyboards (Wurlitzer 200a, Nord Electro), and harmonica (Lee Oskar, Hohner), the boys around JJ who call themselves Mofro do it with comfortable ease. Mofro incidentally are Anthony Cole (drums), Art Edmaiston (saxophone), Anthony Farrell (organ), Dennis Marion (trumpet), Todd Smallie (bass) and Andrew Trube (guitar), and are joined now and again by a plethora of other sessionists when and where it suits. If you like your soul down south and your country-tinged with the blues and a splash of good old American pop-rock, then this one will surely hit the mark. If you have been browsing and after something a little different from the same old same old on the shelves, give this one a chance. It won't disappoint.

Track Listing:-

1 Your Lady, She's Shady
2 Somebody Else
3 Tame a Wild One
4 99 Shades of Crazy
5 The Ballad of Larry Webb
6 Florabama
7 Standing on the Edge
8 Write a Letter
9 Harp & Drums
10 This River

Band Links:-

http://www.jjgrey.com/
https://www.facebook.com/MOFROBAND
https://twitter.com/jjgreyandmofro
https://www.youtube.com/user/JJGreyMusic
https://www.instagram.com/jjgreymusic/

Label Links:-

http://www.alligator.com/
https://www.facebook.com/AlligatorRecords
https://plus.google.com/u/0/102646972824364471309
https://twitter.com/alligator1971

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