by jon bosworth jaxvillain@yahoo.com
I’m constantly asking bands from the South to talk about the impact the South has on their music, because I am so fed up with the presentation of the South in the national media. To me, Jeff Foxworthy and that whole Blue Collar Comedy thing is this terrible confirmation of what the rest of the world thinks about the South. In reality, the South has an amazing culture and a real depth of soul that you don’t see in other parts of the country. That is why an artist such as JJ Grey of Mofro is such a relief.
He has a rich drawl and he speaks slowly and deliberately. He is frank in his opinions and his music carries a sincerity that is rarely bred outside of the South.
JJ isn’t your Larry the Cable Guy southerner, although he would never betray the redneck in him by denouncing his affinity for people that grew up in the rural South. He is a Southern Gentleman, which is something you don’t see much of these days. In addition to being a gentleman, he is also well spoken. When he talks, molasses drips hesitantly from his voice and the Florida is unashamed to drawl from his mouth, but his answers are articulate and incredibly intelligent.
I caught up with JJ as Mofro was getting ready to play in Jackson, Mississippi, after a successful set the night before in Memphis, Tennessee.
EU: In what ways do you think the culture of the South is misrepresented across the country?
JJ: (Laughing) There’s a lot. That is a question with a really long answer. The South has been viewed as less “civilized” because it’s rural. People think of it as being ignorant. Also the South is synonymous with racism, as though the North and other places never had anything to do with that. Hollywood makes movies as though all racism is in the South, but their city was practically burned to the ground not too long ago. It’s been a long time since any group burned a city to the ground in the South. But they’re easy to pick on because they don’t fight back. They’re an easy target because they don’t have time to worry about what people in coffee shops in New York think or say, and they don’t care. And I don’t care either.
EU: The Tone of Black Water was very upbeat, with strokes of rock, blues, and even hip-hop, and celebrated growing up in the swamp, and good southern cooking. The tone of your latest record, on the other hand, was more somber and had more of a country bluegrass tone, remorseful about how the South is changing. What can we expect from your upcoming release?
JJ: Let’s throw some anger in the mix. A record, to me, I want it to be like a good movie. It spans the gamut of emotions. Any serious drama film, underlying the whole movie, has a sadness to it, but there’s comic relief. A record should always do that. This record is a little angrier at times. [It has] angrier observations about losing somebody to drugs and the cultural shift away from accountability. Nobody is responsible for their own actions anymore, and drug companies facilitate that. If you don’t want to pee, the drug companies will make a pill to keep you from peeing.
Rome can’t get any fatter. In the scale of history, it was a short time ago that I was young, but even when I was young there was more expectation to be your own man. Stand on your own two feet. Today you aren’t expected to do anything. You’re not even expected to excel or achieve.
EU: Did living and performing in Jacksonville help you launch your professional career, or make it more difficult?
JJ: It didn’t matter one way or the next. Jacksonville is part of me. But Jacksonville is tricky. It’s not venues or people, but like any town, a music scene becomes a scene when everything just falls into place. The talent, the venues, the whole thing. It’s sort of like the Swampers and the whole Muscle Shoal thing. It was the right combination of artists, producers, and people given enough time to percolate. These days everything moves so fast that it doesn’t have time to really make anything.
A scene creates itself when it has all of those factors, and every now and then a new place gets its chance. There’s the right mindset, the place, and the time. The factors all come together to make it happen and it will never happen the same way again.
EU: How will your solo gigs at Café Eleven differ from the band sets?
JJ: No different, just me playing by myself. These songs are the stories of my life. They’re less about the sound when I play alone, they’re stripped down to tell the stories. The band strikes a good balance these days, letting the stories and the music balance each other, but these shows are more intimate.
EU: What songs are you especially looking forward to performing with the JSO?
JJ: The whole first set is brand new off of the new record. I am looking forward to every one. Palestine is a lake out by Olustee and Lake Butler. I wrote a song about that and I’m really looking forward to getting home and looking at the charts on that song.
|
