In many ways, this is a reviewers nightmare. JJ Grey & Mofro don’t sit in any normal pigeon hole; not straight Blues, not really Americana, not a Southern rock band, not just a funk outfit and definitely more than pop. However, this is a gorgeous album and once it hit my deck it didn’t come off.
JJ Grey & Mofro have been recording since 2001 but this is their first album since 2015. They have been a bit hit on the jam band circuit, they have supported Widespread Panic, Ben Harper and appeared at Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits as well as many other summer festivals. They claim influences from Jim Reeves, Toots Hibbert, Otis Redding, Lynrd Skynrd and others.
So, what the heck do we have here? We have some of the best music I’ve heard this year. A lot of the songs are influenced by his ancestral home in the swamps and bayous of Florida but they find their way into supercharged funk numbers such as ‘Wonderland’ or the title track, the string laden glory of ‘The Sea’ which shows that JJ Grey has one of the finest ballad voices on the planet, environmental conscience in ‘Seminole Wind’ or pop Blues in the soulful ‘Starry Night’.
There are layers of sound and tone so that the better the kit you play it on, the more you discover. The mix by maestro Vance Powell is fabulous and Jim Devito’s recording has created a huge soundscape. One of those albums that you can listen to, end to end, or pick songs out of, to elevate a mood.
It has definitely jumped into my top ten of albums for the year, and probably the top half of that.
