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ERIC SUITON
Mofros Swampy Funk Bock Finds A Solid Place
Country Ghetto, the new album by
JJ Grey and Mofro, sounds like it
has a certain effortless feel, it's no
coincidence.
"The song 'Country Ghetto'? I didn't spend 10
minutes thinking about that song," says Grey.
"It was the same way with 'Circles.' We were rid
ing down the road on the bus and I just ran and
grabbed a keyboard and just started playing it
into the computer, this tiny little keyboard thing
you can play into the computer. The same thing
with Turpentine'... I don't know of any song
that I thought more than a few minutes about
or ever really thought about. They just sort of
happened."
Songwriting hasn't always been so effortless
for him. Grey's first brush with recording came in
1994, after a demo he had made with guitarist
Daryl Hance got the attention of a British record
label and earned the duo a trip to London to
record. That deal collapsed, and it wasn't until
2001 that Grey got a second chance for a first
album.
By that time, Grey had returned to his home
base of Jacksonville, FL, and adopted the band
name Mofro. Signed to the indy label Fog City
Records, Grey recruited Hance and several other
musicians to make the album Blackwater.
Looking back, Grey remembers the struggles
that came with the recording, which was pro
duced by Fog City owner Dan Prothero. "I had
a drummer over there in England," Grey says.
"I saw him one time at a rehearsal, and I
brought him over. He's a great drummer, play
ing drum'n'bass. But I only got to see him play
drum'n'bass, like 150 beats per minute. When we
tried to slow down and start playing some soul,
oh man, he was struggling."
Eventually, Prothero convinced Grey to let
him bring in another drummer, George Sluppick,
and the songs began to take shape—at least
to Prothero's ears. But Grey says he remembers
not being sure about Blackwater when.it was
finished. "When we left out of the studio with
Blacbwater, I was like, 'I don't know what the
hell we've got,'" Grey says.
"Then the second record, I knew a little bit
more what to listen for and I felt better about it.
And then this record I felt really good about it,"
he says. "This is one time when I left the studio
that I felt like, 'Wow, we've really got something
here.'"
Fortunately for Grey and what has been a
shifting cast of backing musicians in Mofro,
Blackwater made musical sense, and the group
gradually began building a following with heavy-
duty touring.
The band's popularity only grew after the
release of the second album, Lochloosa, in 2004.
Now with the arrival of Country Ghetto, Grey
could be poised for another major step up in his
career with Mofro.
After releasing Lochloosa on Swampland
Records (through a licensing agreement with Fog
City), Country Ghetto arrives on the much larger
Alligator Records. Country Ghetto, which like the
previous two CDs was produced by Prothero, has
been in stores for about six months. But even
before its release, Grey was liking what he was
seeing from Alligator's promotional efforts, in
cluding a new influx of interview opportunities.
"That's one thing that they brought to the
table," Grey says. "And they do a lot of things
that we've never been able to [do] before. It's
no knock on any of the labels we've been on
before... But I'm learning it's a whole different
kettle of fish when there are 16 full-time em
ployees who've been doing this for years, rather
[than] two people max working on it in conjunc
tion with me and my manager to try to do it."
With Country Ghetto, Alligator has signed
the group—now officially billed as JJ Grey &
Mofro—as it hits a new musical peak. Songs
like "By Your Side," "War" and "Country Ghetto,"
with their gritty funk edge, rock harder and of
fer a bigger sound than much of Mofro's earlier
music. They are also some of the tightest and
most smartly crafted songs Grey has written. The
strong songcraft also carries through on the more
relaxed songs on Country Ghetto, such as the
deeply soulful, heavily emotional ballad "Circles,"
and the tangy horn-accented "Tragic."
Along with the musical growth, Mofro has
settled into something of a stable lineup since
Lochloosa. Joining Grey and Hance are drummer
Sluppick (who came on board full-time after his
other band, the Willard Grant Conspiracy, split
up) and bassist Adam Scone. The group has be
gun a typically extensive tour to support Country
Ghetto, bringing along an additional musical
treat for fans—a pair of horn players for the cur
rent dates.
This will allow JJ Grey & Mofro not only to
faithfully render songs from the album but bring
new dimensions to older songs. "A lot of the
stuff that was on the other records will have the
horn lines that I always wanted to put on those,
but couldn't afford to get a horn section together
in the studio, that kind of thing," Grey says. "So
we'll have horns on some of those songs, too."
Alan Sculley
r \
WHO: JJ Grey & Mofro, The Lee Boys
WHERE: Georgia Theatre
WHEN: Friday, September 21
HOW MUCH: $12 (advance), $15 (day of)
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