JJ Grey Interview

by Brian D. Holland.

It's easily understood that inspiration drives the music of JJ Grey & MOFRO, as influence radiates from it in an interesting and colorful manner. Though much of it is surrounded in a raw yet contemporary swamp rock ambiance, it possesses elements of southern rock, soul, R&B, folk, gospel, blues, and especially funk. The music parallels the lyrical image flawlessly in setting, emotion and significance.

JJ Grey paints a picture of the rural South, especially the Florida backwoods, where images of alligators and cypress amid swampy terrain effortlessly come to mind. He grew up in and around Jacksonville, Florida, close to the wetland areas he sings about, and close to the Orange and Lochloosa Lakes as well. The rugged wetland environment comes to life in songs like "Florida," "Lochloosa," and "Turpentine," and haunting stories of poverty and misfortune ("Country Ghetto," "Ten Thousand Islands," and "Brighter Days") sit contently among songs of hope and affection ("Orange Blossoms," "A Woman," and "The Truth") in all four of the band's CDs. It's even very Southern Gothic at times, especially in the lyrical content of "The Devil You Know" and "Tragic." Via first and secondhand experiences of their narrator, the tales depict life's ambiguous and complex situations in a genuine and practical manner. JJ touches on racism, hatred, social status, love, and heartache, and sings the words from the angle of the destitute and the frightened, from the perspective of the erudite protagonist at the other end of the spectrum as well.

The lyrics are often delivered in plain and simple phrasing, yet the messages are powerful and forthright. With the passion of Otis Redding and Donny Hathaway, JJ's voice vanguards a style that's often evocative of Sly and the Family Stone, Tony Joe White, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and the R&B glory days. His guitar and keyboard abilities fall right into place in the funk and R&B backdrop because in actuality it's all his musical approach anyway. A musician and songwriter who usually records his own compositions a total of three times before presenting them to the band in the studio, JJ knows exactly what he wants the finished product to be. That's when longtime guitarist Daryl Hance and others finally join in to add their individual fortés to the tracks. When not laying it all down with electric piano and harmonica, JJ executes his rhythmic chops on Gibson guitars through Fender amps.

The music of JJ Grey & MOFRO subsists without boundaries. Their uniquely diverse and original style has presented them with the ability to delight festival audiences worldwide, despite genre preference. It's not unusual for the band to be listed on a blues festival lineup one day, a jam band list a week later, and an Americana festival after that. Though they're not a blues band, per se, their last two albums, Country Ghetto and Orange Blossoms, were released on Alligator Records, the renowned blues label. Other than the correlation in the word alligator, it makes sense also because of the fact that Alligator has been releasing some extremely tasteful music outside of the blues genre over the past few years, music with characteristics of the blues yet not actual blues. And in recognition of the material that preceded the recent two, they've since rereleased the band's first two CDs, Blackwater and Lochloosa.

The 2008 release from JJ Grey & MOFRO, Orange Blossoms, is a welcomed continuation of the aforementioned style that has made them the unique and diversely interesting band they are: a lot of JJ's soulful and gritty voice, funereal piano resonance, prominent bass lines, and funky guitar chops. Save for one song, it's all JJ Grey original compositions.

Below is my recent interview with JJ Grey, the funk master of swamp rock, wherein he speaks of American music; the new CD, Orange Blossoms; playing guitar, bass, and keyboards; and, his love for the music of AC/DC.

Brian D Holland: JJ, I really like your sound. It appears to be one that's all your own. A lot of people associate it with swamp rock. Of course, much of it is, with a sound reminiscent of performers as diverse as Creedence Clearwater Revival at times. However, there's a lot of blue-eyed soul, R&B and funk in there as well.

JJ Grey: Yes!

Brian: How’s everything going, and how’s the Orange Blossoms CD doing for you?

JJ: It’s doing great. We're doing another month of east coast dates. Everything’s great. The shows are great, and the record’s doing really well. It’s always been a slow growing thing for me, but as long as it chips away and keeps me busy on the road I’m happy with it.

Brian: I'm very curious about the meaning of MOFRO?

JJ: [Laughing] I worked in a lumber yard for a long time. All the guys I knew there, the guys that still work there, used to use the word "MOFRO" all the time, for anything. It sounded southern and like home, but it didn’t really mean anything, so I thought it was good enough for a name, you know.

Brian: What’s the music of JJ Grey & MOFRO all about?

JJ: For me it’s about letting go. In writing tunes and arranging stuff, I just try to let everything go and just let it happen, and let who I am and where I’m from just happen. I’ve tried to just let things happen for years, and I've also tried to make it sound a certain way. One or two things would happen when I did that. Either it would never sound like anything more than the sum of my influences, nothing beyond that. Or, it would just be terrible. It was one or the two. It wasn't until I started letting go, and lyrically and musically just letting things happen, that things started to take over their own personal flavor. Of course the influences were still there, like they are with every performer. But what I was doing finally started to feel like it was something more than just who influenced me. If I let go and don't think about it, it just happens.

I grew up listening to everything from the Grand Ole Opry and the 8-track tapes my dad would listen to in the car and stuff, all the way over to stuff like Jerry Reed, and Lynyrd Skynyrd in the rock world. Jerry Reed is one of my favorite guitar players of all time. Stevie Wonder and Donnie Hathaway are my two favorite keyboard players and singers. The Jamaican reggae singer Toots Hibbert, from Toots and the Maytals, is a favorite. To me he's a soul singer, too. Tony Joe White, I love the way he plays guitar. So, all of these people influence me all of the time. I really loved players like Stevie Ray Vaughan, the kind of people who can really shred on a guitar. But I knew that I could never play like that.

Brian: Were you a fan of John Fogerty and Creedence at one time?

JJ: Oh, sure. Definitely. I forgot to drop that in there. I always loved Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Brian: I hear a lot of Sly and the Family Stone in your music, too.

JJ: Definitely. Sly and the Family Stone are another huge influence. I'm glad you hear those because a lot of people don't. They hear stuff that I've never even heard of, or stuff I don't even like. But everything you're naming I love. [Laughing]

Brian: I hear the passion and emotion of Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett in your music as well.

JJ: I love all of that soul stuff. That's the stuff I listen to the most.

Brian: You were raised outside of Jacksonville, Florida. Did that upbringing have much to do with influencing your musical style?

JJ: Yeah. I think it has everything to do with it. I think that life's experiences shape who you are as a player. The land and everything shapes it. I could go out and try to be a swamp guitar player, and it might become kind of like a caricature, or kind of phony. But if you just let it happen naturally, it'll rise up into what you do anyway.

Brian: I noticed that you utilize a lot of electric piano in your music, that haunting piano sound. I think it's a Wurlitzer.

JJ: Yeah. I play a Wurlitzer 200A, a Rhodes electric suitcase style, and a clavinet on just about every record. And Adam (Scone) played organ on Orange Blossoms and Country Ghetto. But I've always loved the electric piano and organ. I play the piano, the 200A, on the road every night. I play clavinet every night as well. It's all part of a sound I like. If you go back in history and look at music, at guitar, amplification, and everything, technology moved very slowly. But music got a chance to sort of steep itself with the sounds that were happening at the time. And just after the 60s, probably around the mid 70s, technology just took off. It almost left music behind. People have a tendency to pretend that things are so different now. But we both know that musical notes are musical notes; they haven't changed. Arrangements are still pretty much the same. Somehow, we all got caught up in this concept of [music] having to be done with a new synthesized sound. It has to be done with this; it has to be with that. And in my opinion, some of the sounds got worse. There are reasons why people love older guitars a lot. It's not just a romantic, stuck in the past thing. It's just that they do sound better. Of course, people hear things differently; they have a different ear. Some metal guys wouldn't like older amplifiers. Some players like tubes and some players would rather a jazz chorus amp.

Brian: Well, if you're comparing tubes and solid state, the Roland Jazz Chorus is certainly a good example when straying from tubes. [Laughing]

JJ: Sure, but anyway, for the most part, especially in the keyboard world, technology dominated everything. Suddenly, it was about technology and not music. So, what I'm leading up to is that I'm accused sometimes, and glad of it in a way, of being nostalgic and retro. It's only retro because the keyboard world went off into these crazy sounds that I just don't like. They sound terrible. But when you go out and buy a combination guitar and amplifier that sounds like the Rolling Stones, though you play music like the White Stripes, no one accuses you of being retro, even though you're playing the same stuff people did forty years ago.

Brian: Right. Retro is good sometimes. One thing that really amazes me about your records is the blatant bass sound and crisp drum ambiance. It's a sound from the old days that isn't often found in modern music. I hear a lot of this crispness on your records, even though much of the bass is keyboard bass.

JJ: Exactly! Though I played bass on two of the tracks, [Adam] Scone played left handed organ bass on most of it. On Orange Blossoms, the reference record we used was the '70s song by Dobie Gray, "Drift Away." You know, "Give me the beat boys and free my soul."

Brian: Oh, yeah! I know it well.

JJ: It was in that era, the '60s right on thru the early '70s, where the arrangements were so thick and warm, especially the bass. We used that song. We still never got it to sound as fat as that bass though. We got it close. You hear it, feel it, but it doesn't dominate. Those people were geniuses. The music was works of art, just like the instruments, the guitars from back then. The Hammond B3 is a work of art. I love all of that stuff. And I couldn't agree more; the bass was incredible back then. I use a Victoria amp [for guitar]. It's a copy of an old Twin. The difference between using it and a more circuit board amplifier of today is that you hear more of a bump sound in the high notes, as opposed to the wah sound. With the solid state amp, you don't hear that defining edge, that fatness. You can't feel the guitar licks; you can only hear them. I love that amp.

JJ: You and guitarist Daryl Hance have been together since the beginning. You had met while doing air conditioning and ventilation work. Correct?

JJ: Yeah.

Brian: Did you both share the same musical vision?

JJ: Yeah. I would say so. He comes from a slightly different background than me, but he's always been supportive. When I met Daryl, we were just installing duct work. We never graduated to putting in the actual units. [Laughing] When I met Daryl, all the guitar players I either played with or knew wanted to be super shredders. But they weren't super shredders; they didn't have that ability. You couldn't tell them that or anything, and I didn't want to spend time telling people who they were or who they weren't anyway. I always liked Daryl because he played more like Peter Tosh or Bob Marley, or like Curtis Mayfield, when he played guitar. And kind of like Steve Cropper and all the old soul guys. They played little licks; they'd step in and step out. I always loved that. And the fact that he's always been supportive, that's why it's been him since day one.

Brian: Plus, your producer and engineer, Dan Prothero, has been around since the beginning as well.

JJ: He was involved in all four records. Though Black Water is the rawest in sound, and people think it's the least produced, it was actually the most produced. That's because I didn't have all my ducks in a row when I hit the studio. We then had to make a lot of studio magic happen, and a lot of editing in the mix as well. I'm still proud of it, and I'm glad he did what he did. But when we left that session I didn't believe we had a record done. I was scared. Anyway, to make a long story short, he's produced all the records. We did this one [Orange Blossoms] the same way we did Country Ghetto. I got my own studio at home. I've got drums and all. I just sit down and record about a record and a half's worth of material, usually when I come off the road, when I have the time. When I get enough songs together, and I feel like it's a record, I'll record everything again at home by myself. I'll usually record everything a third time, and double check everything to make sure it isn't demo-itis. That can happen. You do something accidently that you'll never do again. Then after the third time, I'll make discs and give them to the guys as they come in to play. That's how all of them have been done.

Brian: Supposedly Orange Blossoms was inspired by true life experiences, lyrically. Is that correct?

JJ: All the records have been, to be honest. But that one certainly was. Some of it was stories I heard through people I grew up with. Some of it is first hand and some of it is second hand, and some of it is a mixture of the two.

Brian: Your music is a hodgepodge of swamp rock, blues, funk, folk, soul, R&B, a little gospel. I think it can be put into the genre of today's Americana.

JJ: I would say so, and I'll tell you why. The music that has influenced me the most, outside of reggae, has been American music. It's funny, because some of the Americana people say Orange Blossoms isn't that Americana. And I'm like, there's very little music that's more American. And there's very little music that's more American than funk. It started over here, you know. It's a mixture of a lot of things, but mostly African-American. Black players in the south, and all over the country for that matter, were playing those beats, mixing and jiving in collided culture. In Louisiana, New Orleans, and Philadelphia or wherever, when these cultures collided, things happened. It formulated here. Some [people] have a tendency to say that if it doesn't sound like alternative country then it isn't Americana. I love country music. It's one of my favorites. I'm a big George Jones fan. We were just listening to George Jones the other day. Those arrangements are huge. They've got strings all over them, and it's just beautiful. That's soul music to me. Even bluegrass is soul music to me. When you're just sitting on a porch and letting it go, it's soul music. You're getting a piece of their soul. But I'd say Americana is definitely a slice of it. I hope so anyway.

Brian: I see your name in the magazines all summer long, appearing at the blues festivals and even the jam band fests. It seems you fit in just about anywhere. It must be advantageous to have such a diverse style.

JJ: Yeah. It is cool. It's cool to play Bonnaroo, or even High Sierra. We had a phenomenal set at High Sierra, and that's a real hippie jam band festival. It's great, and to turn around and play blues festivals over the summer, in different towns, and just fit right in. But I don't believe in mobs, I believe in individuals, and I think everybody is an individual. Truthfully, there are the true blues bands that specifically target the things that people think of as blues. Twelve bar blues or whatever, Chicago or hill country blues or whatever. But many people just play and be themselves. Like Buddy Guy; he's always been a blues guy, but he's done so many songs, too, that are soul songs. All kinds of stuff, like the jam bands. There are very few jam bands; there are mostly jam fans. They like all kinds of things. They might go see the Blind Boys of Alabama, and then turn around and go see Phish, or somebody totally different, like the Allman Brothers. It's good to feel like you can do your thing and have a wide variety of people check you out.

Brian: Let's talk a bit about a few of the songs on Orange Blossoms. "On Fire" is a kickass, funky tune. It's very Sly Stone in essence I think.

JJ: Definitely. That kind of an influence comes out. That songs starts for me when I hear the bass line. I made up the bass line. I laid the drum beat down and then I put the bass line to it. Then it just sat for a while and I didn't do anything with it. Finally one day I came back to it and finished it up. I've found that if I spend too long at one time with a song it starts to suffer. It's better if I do it quick, get in and get out. But definitely, I hope Sly Stone shows up as an influence in that song.

Brian: As I had already mentioned, a few of the songs possess a Creedence Clearwater Revival air to them, especially in "The Devil You Know," "I Believe (In Everything)," and "Ybor City." They've definitely got that swamp rock thing going on, of course, but a lot of that CCR rhythm is in there as well.

JJ: Yeah, definitely. For me, "The Devil You Know" sounds like it landed somewhere out there between, or even a combination of Creedence, the Stones, and maybe even a little AC/DC. I love that band.

Brian: [Laughing] Yeah. I think everybody loves AC/DC these days. That's why they do so well, and sell out everywhere.

JJ: They bring it! They're pound for pound one of my favorite bands. I don't even call them heavy; they're just rock 'n' roll. AC/DC is my favorite rock band of all time. They're like the reggae of rock. I never tire of it. When you hear "Family Man" [Aston Barrett] and those cats from the Wailers lay down a really thick rhythm section, they're doing the same thing as AC/DC does with rock 'n' roll.

Brian: Talk about songwriting, and the procedure you're comfortable with. Also, what's important for you in the lyric content?

JJ: It's hard for me to say what I'm looking for, but I can quickly spot what I'm not. I can tell when something isn't going to work. And the only time I have to deal with that is when I'm up against a deadline, or when I've waited to the last minute. Like if I've got one more tune on the record and I haven't finished all the words. That's when I have to put my thinking cap on. But for the most part, my main process is to not think at all. Just let everything happen in its time. All I can do is visit it. And if I visit it and it happens, then that's great. And if it doesn't, then stop and go do something else. Get something to eat or go fix the lawnmower or whatever. [Laughing] Don't try to force it. Musically and lyrically, it's the same way. My biggest rule of thumb and what makes it most comfortable is to just allow things to happen. Relax and let things happen.

Brian: What's your procedure in the recording studio, for recording guitar and voice? Do you use Pro Tools?

JJ: Everything you've heard is recorded on two-inch tape. A friend of mine has a studio called Retrophonics, in Saint Augustine, Florida. All of the records have been recorded there. He's also got every Fender blackface amp ever made. He's got the blackfaces, the tans, a lot of the old tweeds, a lot of old Gibson and Guild guitars. I bring my own SG and my own amplifiers. So I've got a bunch of stuff to pick and play with. And at home I'll do some overdubs on Pro Tools. But I've also got a Tascam 388 eight track. It's a great little recorder. I use it in conjunction with Pro Tools. Yeah, I just want to crush stuff to tape, and get that fuzzy, warm edge that you can get with tape. In the end we'll dump it down to Pro Tools from two-inch tape. Dan (Prothero) likes to mix as much as he can off of a live console, and sub-mix as much as he can down.

I start every record at home, with the idea that I'm going to put it out all by myself. Then I'll change my mind and decide it needs more. I make sure to spend a lot of time on it at home, so that when I get to the studio the other musicians know exactly what to play and I'm not wasting their time. Then everyone adlibs a little and it gets a little spicier and better.

At home, on the guitar, I use a Blue Dragonfly microphone. Actually, it really looks like a dragonfly. I like it a lot. Depending upon how prominent the track will be, I'll either put it to tape on the 388 or I'll go straight into Pro Tools with it, with some preamps and compression. Like an [Universal Audio] LA2A Limiter Compressor or an 1176 Compressor, one of those.

Brian: You're using mainly Gibson guitars and Victoria amplifiers, a Gibson SG, a Gibson ES337, and a Gibson Southern Jumbo acoustic. Correct?

JJ: Yes.

Brian: Also, a vintage Fender Showman amp?

JJ: I used to play through that on the road. That's how I got hooked up with Mark Baier, over at Victoria. He saw an article and said that he feels the same way as I do about guitars. He said if I ever get a chance, come by. So I did. I brought in my rig, the one you're speaking of. It's a Fender Showman head with a Tone Tubby two-twelve cab. I stuck them right beside his amplifier and I tried them both. His amp beat mine in the end. It was a rig I thought nothing could beat. Well, the only amp I thought could beat mine was the rig Jimi [Hendrix] had, which was an older Showman, with an original JBL cabinet. But in the end, the Victoria sounded like that amplifier.

Brian: You've been doing well with Alligator Records. Last year's Country Ghetto did extremely well. And they've since reissued the first two. Has that helped in exposing the earlier work to audiences?

JJ: I think so, definitely. They sold more copies than I thought they would, very quickly, too. I was very pleased. I've been very pleased working with them in general. The historical significance of working with Alligator is great. But for me, you can move beyond that and get to a personal level. I like them. They're all hungry, even after 30 years of doing this. Bruce Iglauer [producer and head of Alligator Records] is great. I met him years and years ago at the Springing the Blues Festival, in Jacksonville, before Lochloosa (second JJ Grey & MOFRO album) came out. He said he wanted to talk to me about putting out a record. I had kind of already gone down the road with another label about it. I said, "Hey, after this record's put out." They stayed in touch. They actually signed a friend of mine after that, Eric Lindell, and he's done good with them. So after I got done with Lochloosa I was wide open. There were a couple of other labels coming after me, but it was easy for me to make the decision that I wanted to work with Alligator.

Brian: So, what's new on the horizon for JJ Grey & MOFRO?

JJ: I'm going to keep writing songs. I think I've got enough together to put out an acoustic record, a record by myself. And I'd like to put out another album with the full band in about a year and a half. But I'd like to get Alligator to maybe squeak in an acoustic EP or an acoustic record, something just for the fun of it, you know. I might do that and I might not, or I might wait on it. I'd put out records all the time if I could. [Laughing]

Brian: Obviously, you like to play live and put on a show. Your tours are always exciting events to be at.

JJ: Yeah. I love playing live. It's all I've ever known. I know way more about that than I do the studio, doing a hundred and fifty plus shows a year, going on eight years straight. Plus, I did it for years before that, in cover bands and stuff. But I love playing live, and the tour has been going great. I've been pleasantly surprised by all of the people who've been coming out to the shows, singing all of the songs and singing along. It's been great. It feels good in a place like Australia, when people sing along to the songs on Lochloosa. I'm like, "I don't know how they know it, but I'm glad they do." And I really appreciate it.

Related Links
JJ Grey & MOFRO
Alligator Records
Brian D. Holland's review of Country Ghetto
Orange Blossoms on Amazon

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