JJ Grey and Mofro: This River (Southbound)

 |   |  <1 min read

JJ Grey and Mofro: Tame a Wild One
JJ Grey and Mofro: This River (Southbound)

Hard traveling and prolific JJ Grey and his horn-embellished band have been serving up a mix of Southern soul, New Orleans funk and swamp rock for such a long time now you'd think they might have made a global impact.

When Grey gets into ballad mode -- as he does here beautifully on Somebody Else, Tame a Wild One and the title track -- he can melt hearts. And there's no doubt the upbeat or funky material where the horns start stabbing -- 99 Shades of Crazy and Florabama here -- must get dancers onto the floor.

It's an impressive double punch combination, but here too are Your Lady She's Shady which is an off-putting opener ("but you're the one running round town like a dog in heat") and sounds designed to appeal to Southern gals who'll whoop and holler at the sentiment while tossing back JD chasers.

The album-filler Harp and Drums perhaps works better in the same bar than it does on record. 

Grey is much better when turning the soul light on and sounding like he's trained at the feet of Sam Cooke, Southside Johnny and Otis Redding.

A patchy one . . . but when he draws a line between his heart and yours he'll hit you dead centre.

For previous albums by JJ Grey and Mofro at Elsewhere -- including a Best of Elsewhere selection -- see here.

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   Music at Elsewhere articles index

The Doors: Live at the Bowl '68 (Warners)

The Doors: Live at the Bowl '68 (Warners)

Anyone charting the career trajectory of the Doors would doubtless have it as a rapidly rising inverted V with an equally sudden if rather more bumpy decline after the peak and perhaps a little... > Read more

Edwin Derricutt: Three Hours South (Freefall/Pure)

Edwin Derricutt: Three Hours South (Freefall/Pure)

The debut by this New Zealand singer-songwriter, Symmetry, found immediate favour at Elsewhere a couple of years ago, but this album is big step up in maturity of songwriting and musicality.... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

HOWARD MORRISON: BORN FREE, CONSIDERED (1968): Each time you look at a star?

HOWARD MORRISON: BORN FREE, CONSIDERED (1968): Each time you look at a star?

There could be no greater proof of the random nature of Elsewhere's The Album Considered pages than this one pulled off a shelf. Few in their right mind would want to play this ancient, MOR... > Read more

EPS by Yasmin Brown

EPS by Yasmin Brown

With so many CDs commanding and demanding attention Elsewhere will run this occasional column by the informed and opinionated Yasmin Brown. She will scoop up some of those many EP releases, in... > Read more