Send "Jj Grey & Mofro " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Popmatters |
 Jacksonville’s JJ Grey has been delivering his brand of funky, countrified blues-rock to true-believing audiences ever since his debut album Blackwater was unleashed in 2007. Grey’s voice is soulful, scratchy and impassioned, as capable of crooning a tender ballad as unleashing a fiery torrent worthy of a hard rock band in its prime. With a string of memorable albums already under his belt that includes 2008’s Orange Blossoms and 2010’s Georgia Warhorse, Grey and his band Mofro have now released a combination live album and DVD set documenting a recent performance in Atlanta. The set is a scorcher, and should be powerful enough to make a believer out of anybody with a pulse.The CD performance opens with “Country Ghetto”, a rollicking little number from the 2007 album of the same name, then swoons a little too quickly into “A Woman”, a downtempo song that tries to channel the softer soul side of the band. But it’s the eight-minute-plus “Brighter Days” that really ups the intensity here, a song that utilizes Grey’s throaty wistfulness in a nostalgic ode to the way things used to be. The band is tight throughout the album, and they are spot-on here, especially Andrew Trube’s understated guitar playing and Anthony Cole’s propulsive percussion. The brass section is nicely mixed down, supporting the tune without dominating it. The set will be known to the Mofro faithful—there are no unexpected cover versions of Kraftwek or anything—and the stomping live rendition of “War”, the bouncy “Orange Blossoms” and tongue-in-cheek “Ho Cake” will satisfy longtime fans while engaging newcomers as well. The sound quality and balance are excellent throughout, capturing the razor-sharp band in its prime. “Lochloosa” opens with a monologue from Grey which may not have a great deal of replay value, but the song is tight nevertheless. A good many songs are stretched into six-to-eleven-minute territory, which is only a good thing for a band with these kinds of chops....full text |
| Blindedbysound |
| Anyone who's seen JJ Grey and Mofro since 2008 knows how the sparks that fly from their studio recordings catch fire when the band plays live. The audio component of Brighter Days, a combination CD and DVD set, proceeds almost breathlessly as the successive cuts appear at an ardent pace. Recorded in a single night early in 2011, the performance contains three extra numbers on video, but the sequencing of the audio, like the band's last release, Georgia Warhorse (Alligator, 2010), has a logic all its own that renders it a complete document on its own terms. By the time Grey's ode to desire, "On Fire," is finished, there's no sense of anything being left out. The set list spans the history of Mofro, which began life as a quirky little unit immersed in the swampy funk of their southern roots through tunes like "Country Ghetto" and "War." Now adorned with horns and fleshed out with keyboards as well as guitars and a rhythm section—drummer Anthony Cole and bassist Todd Smallie (late of The Derek Trucks Band)—this larger unit seethes the same deeply felt soul Grey radiates as a singer and songwriter. The sextet has morphed into a full-fledged soul band. "Orange Blossoms" marks the point of departure for Grey as bona fide front man for the band. This ode to his Florida roots, set in a geographical context far removed from the provincial character depictions of "Dirtfloorcracker," represents the elevation of Mofro's momentum on stage at The Variety Playhouse in Atlanta, Georgia. Obviously a student of the R&B genre, Grey's fevered personalization of the style distinguishes him from the mere academic admirer or dilettante poser. The intensity builds over the course of the dozen cuts as J.J. Grey and Mofro contain themselves carefully during the early part of their set in disciplined arrangements like that of "A Woman." Yet even later on, when the ensemble stretches out for "The Sweetest Thing" and "The Sun Is Shining Down," there's a restraint to the playing and singing that precludes self-indulgence. Ultimately, the tighter the band plays, the harder is their impact....full text |
| Blindedbysound |
| After five studio albums, JJ Grey & Mofro released their first live CD/DVD package Brighter Days earlier in September of 2011. It's surprising a band that has lived on the road and built such a strong following would wait this long to capture that part of their identity but the patience pays off, providing Grey a deep catalog of material from which to choose for the January 22, 2011 performance they filmed at Atlanta's Variety Playouse. Brighter Days is a CD and a DVD and the programs are different so we'll deal with them separately but before we do I have to again voice my frustration with a practice not unique to this set. BD is a single performance recording, which I absolutely love and wish more bands would offer. I'm sure the intent was to keep the price down but I wish the complete show was presented in both audio and video. Offer a 2CD/DVD deluxe edition as a limited run. Offer fans who buy the set a code to download lossless and/or lossy files of the entire performance or the missing songs. Do something! There are a trillion challenges facing the music industry today, some of their own making and some from factors beyond their control. People will pay for music and one of the ways to make that happen is offering more choice, not less, more value, not less. Here endeth my rant and I reiterate: this is not unique to Alligator Records, JJ Grey, or Brighter Days. Let's get to the specifics of the release where 12 songs are culled from the concert for the CD and there's good flow from track-to-track despite missing banter and songs. It's a satisfying listen bolstering Mofro's reputation as a top-notch live act. We get some of Grey's intros and banter and he proves himself an engaging frontman but more importantly is the band's ability to inject life into some great songs. I didn't discover them until their most recent studio album Georgia Warhorse. I've since bought most of their albums and will complete the collection. Listening backwards gave me an appreciation for how much Grey has grown as a singer, songwriter, and musician. The older material performed by this band stands strong alongside the new songs....full text |
Jj Grey & Mofro lyrics
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