Album:
Orange Blossoms
Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 53:19
Size: 122.1 MB
Styles: Swamp blues
Year: 2008
Art: Front
[4:37] 1. Orange Blossoms
[3:31] 2. The Devil You Know
[3:36] 3. Everything Good Is Bad
[3:34] 4. She Don't Know
[4:15] 5. The Truth
[4:15] 6. Wylf
[4:25] 7. On Fire
[6:53] 8. Move It On
[4:05] 9. Higher You Climb
[3:35] 10. Dew Drops
[4:20] 11. Ybor City
[6:07] 12. I Believe (In Everything)
It's difficult to find a review of JJ Grey's music that doesn't use the word "swamp" to describe his blend of deep Southern soul and murky funk. So that's taken care of in the first sentence here, which leaves plenty of room to focus on his fourth album's low-key yet surging backwoods R&B. The disc's title and title track refer to Grey's home state of Florida's official flower, but there is little that is floral or sunshiny about his music. Rather, the Jacksonville-based Grey prefers to hover in the gloaming, layering horns and backing vocals over grinding, midtempo blue-eyed soul. This is the most elaborately produced of his albums, but like the chitlin' circuit blues in his blood, there is nothing slick about it. Similar to the illicit affair at the heart of "Everything Good Is Bad," the disc's only cover (the original was done by the obscure act 100 Proof ), Grey's music generally stays in the shadows. The funeral piano that opens "She Don't Know" is jazzy yet ominous and sounds as humid and muggy as his hometown on an August night. Ditto for the strings that appear at the song's end and pop up like wild weeds throughout this dozen-song set. Grey has matured into a compelling vocalist and it is his emotional yet subtle singing that elevates this already powerful material. His sluggish Southern drawl on the funky "WYLF" (short for "what you're looking for") infuses a laconic, easygoing, almost lazy feel, a distinguishing characteristic of his style. That's brought into sharp relief on the sticky, sweaty sex of "Move It On," a sly, nearly seven-minute deliberate groover that sounds like something the Temptations might have recorded if they had been bred in the South. Although Grey deserves the bulk of the credit for this disc's unassuming success, longtime co-producer Dan Prothero (who has worked on every Grey/Mofro project) and in-the-pocket drummer Anthony Cole are crucial elements of the stealthy vibe. It's an album that grows on you slowly like moss at the base of a withered old tree and transports you to the dank, mosquito-infested bayou at the heart of Grey's evocative sound. ~ Hal Horowitz
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Album:
This River
Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 48:32
Size: 111.1 MB
Styles: Swamp blues
Year: 2013
Art: Front
[3:07] 1. Your Lady, She's Shady
[4:36] 2. Somebody Else
[4:19] 3. Tame A Wild One
[4:49] 4. 99 Shades of Crazy
[4:51] 5. The Ballad of Larry Webb
[5:06] 6. Florabama
[4:57] 7. Standing On The Edge
[5:18] 8. Write A Letter
[6:10] 9. Harp and Drums
[5:16] 10. This River
Fans of JJ Grey and his ever evolving band Mofro will be delighted that the Florida swamp sage lives by the dictum "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" on This River. If anything, Grey has doubled down on the grittier, funkier aspects of 2010's Georgia Warhorse, and brought the studio closer to the stage to boot. The sound on this record is live, crackling. Half of its ten tracks are crunchy uptempo numbers that flex their funky muscles. The rest is balanced between well-articulated soul tunes, a rock number, and back-porch ballads. Set opener "Your Lady, She's Shady" is a crusty, greasy funk attack, while "Somebody Else" walks some weird line between part of the melody from the Classics IV's "Spooky" (courtesy of the Atlanta Rhythm Section's cover), vocal phrasing by Wilson Pickett, and guitars, bass, and horns coming straight from Stax. Speaking of which, the horn chart and melody in "Tame a Wild One" come right out of the late '60s -- and in the grain of Grey's whiskey voice, it feels right. "99 Shades of Crazy" is dirty-ass blues-rock inspired by Delaney Bramlett and Sticky Fingers-era Rolling Stones. Choppy syncopated funk makes its return in "Florabama," and one can feel Muscle Shoals dripping from the horns. While this is definitely retro, Grey's fans expect it; they want it. His songs and his presence as a frontman keep things choogling. But there is a surprise in every track -- the jazz-funk trumpet and Rhodes solos in the jumping, grimy "Harp & Drums" are a prime example. The songs on This River are tighter and more deftly written than on previous offerings, but the more immediate, in-the-moment-of-creation production and incendiary performances keep things from getting slick. ~ Thom Jurek
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