One Bad Mofro
by Jewly Hight
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You wouldn’t know that Orange Blossoms—JJ Grey and Mofro’s fourth album and their second for Alligator Records—is the Florida-based band’s most refined work yet from the fact that it’s got a sinewy jam titled with the not-so-subtle come-on acronym of “WYLF.” But it is. It’s also just the second album to have Grey’s name out front, but hey—as the primary songwriter, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist who even designed the cover art—he deserves the prominent placement. As a young child in Jacksonville, Grey must have not only caught wind of his hometown Southern rock, but also felt the Muscle Shoals and Memphis air drifting South, because he’s always favored Southern soul emoting and humid, knee-deep grooves. On the new album, Grey & Co. have a more burnished sound with graceful swaths of strings and horns and gentler melodic hooks. But, thankfully, they’ve held onto their backwoods Florida imagery and overall swampiness, too.
Sat., Nov. 29, 8 p.m., 2008
Sat., Nov. 29, 8 p.m., 2008
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