CD REVIEW - JJ Grey & Mofro….Orange Blossoms
Once again, I have to make room on my radar screen for a band with whom I was not familiar. I have heard and seen the name JJ Grey & Mofro for a while, but never seemed to bother to dig any deeper, until now. I wish now I woulda started lookin' sooner.....I love these guys! They produce a kinda funky, swampy, southern-rock, bluesy sorta mix that feels like it's been simmerin' in the gumbo pot all day long.....very complex, but at the same time, familiar and comforting.
Far from being the typical three or four piece band, Mofro breaks the mold with seven members: JJ Grey (vocals, guitar, harmonica and keyboard), Daryl Hance (guitar), Art Edmaiston (sax), Dennis Marion (trumpet), Andrew Trube (bass), Anthony Farrell (organ), and Anthony Cole (drums). That would explain the complexity of their music, since none of them are simply there as filler.....each of the instruments have their own "center-stage" moments, and blend deliciously together. The horns produce the funkiness, and JJ's gritty vocals and lyrics give it that lazy, north Florida swamp feel.
Their MySpace page has a nice sampling of tunes: http://www.myspace.com/mofroband , and their web site has a ton of info on the band, as well as the lyrics to all their songs: http://www.mofro.net/lyrics/
The title cut, “Orange Blossoms,” starts it off with JJ's recollection of learnin' about love in the orange grove with a sweet young thang.....until her daddy put a stop to it. This song kinda gives you an idea of how he writes his lyrics, from personal experience, and his honesty in portraying those experiences. Eleven of the twelve songs on the CD were written by JJ, and all are outstanding.
“The Devil You Know” sounds to be dedicated to some junky buddy that has taken advantage of JJ for the last time. He offers some wise advice: "habit got you changed mind body and soul / and you’ll never feel free until you learn to let go of that / that bag full of bricks you been dragging around."
In what could be sub-titled "Wise up, Tiger," “Everything Good is Bad” delves into the age old problem of forbidden fruit: "your love is like the sweet forbidden fruit in life / I’m another woman’s man you’re another man’s wife / we both know the difference between right and wrong / life is full of temptation it’s hard to be strong." Whether or not he has learned his lesson is left up to the listener, but I kinda doubted it.....until I listened to the next song.
“She Don't Know” is not the greatest love song of all time, but they don't get much more poignant. Soulful vocals, bluesy keyboard, and what sounds like a drummer from a funeral march.....all set up a tune that shows a man head over heels for his woman who loves him unconditionally, and yet he seems worried that she does not understand what she means to him: "lord but she don’t know how much I love her / and she don’t know how much I need / if the morning finds her gone I don’t know that I could carry on / she don’t know" My guess is, JJ.....she knows.
In the same vein, “The Truth” is another pouring out of his love for his woman...a beautiful recounting of coming off the road to what he calls The Truth in his life...the love of his woman. "no words can say no words won’t mean a thing / no answers tell what you mean what you mean to me" Besides all the glitz and glamour of a musician's life, I've always felt it's gotta be unbelievably hard satisfying crowds that expect to see you performing at your best...night after night...regardless of how you feel. In JJ's case, it sounds like what keeps him going is the anchor in his life.....his Truth. 
“WYLF” is a funky little thang that breaks the ice with a girl by explaining "What You're Lookin' For", and the funk spills over and grows in “On Fire”...a tune about the woman, that we have all seen, that's workin' all the boys in the bar for drinks. This line I especially liked: "we tried to look away we all tried to be cool / but she had an ass as thick as an army mule’s" Yup...that'll do it every time. “Move it On” is a sweet, rolling, intricately layered gem that is pretty much about gettin' over, to be honest: "come on baby come on yeah / come on whisper in my ear / if you ain’t going to make your intentions sugar / make ‘em crystal clear / cause every second is another golden opportunity / slipping on by / another chance Lord another chance baby / for me to make it make it alright." Careful ladies...the boy's a smooth talker.
In what sounds like another message to his junky buddy, “Higher You Climb” does not pull any punches: "spend the grocery money trying to make you a name / while your kids can’t read or write I guess you ain’t gonna change / and now you say they got you pimping for the DEA / rolling on your boys cause you say you getting paid." In “Dew Drops,” he writes: "mama ain’t a day goes by I don’t think about him / well I can see his face still / dull grey eyes burnt out to ash Lord to hell and gone again / I got to get away from him." Sounds like JJ needs to distance himself to keep from being dragged down into the same hell. As with all the songs, the lyrics paint the picture perfectly, warts and all.
“Ybor City” sounds like the perfect place to get JJ's mind off of the mess that his buddy is in: "I know a rowdy place where the whiskey’s warm and women are too / when I get to Ybor City / all them women going to love me through and through." Works for me.
The CD closes out nicely with “I Believe (in everything)”...another beautifully layered love song. JJ Grey has an exceptional voice, writes from the heart, and is backed by more than just another run-of-the-mill band in Mofro. The groove they lay down is infectious, and the proof of that can be seen in the fact that Alligator Records (the best record label on the planet!) signed the band in 2007.
This CD was a pleasant surprise... a band that I will be keeping an eye and ear on for years to come.
~Jim Bartilson
