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JJ Grey and MOFRO
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Posted by Jen1180 Tue Nov 13, 2007 17:08:23 MST
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0 responses 0 comments BREAKOUT BOX: When: Tuesday, Nov. 13, at 7:30 p.m.
Where: The Stephens Performing Arts Center at ISU, located at 1601 Bartz Way.
Cost: $15.

Florida blues musician is bringing his ‘Country Ghetto’ act to Pocatello

By Jenny Wixom
jwixom@journalnet.com
    POCATELLO — Everybody has their own personal way of holding on to their memories, something that ensures their thoughts and feelings on certain issues will never die. Some people choose to document these things in a diary, others take pictures and fill photo albums. JJ Grey makes music.
    “Songs are my photo album,” he said in a recent interview with the Journal.
    JJ Grey and his band, MOFRO will perform at ISU on Tuesday at the Stephens Performing Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. The cost of tickets is $15 and can be purchased by going to www.isu.edu/tickets or by going to the art center box office during regular business hours.
    Grey’s new album, “Country Ghetto,” is his third, but the first one on his new label, Alligator Records. JJ Grey’s sound has been described as “southern fried funk-blues” by the Baltimore Sun and everything from funk to country soul and rock. It is as if he has taken the classic genres of blues, folk and rock and added a modern twist with his own personal style.
    He describes his music as “Southern,” but also says that it is hard to classify.
    “It’s kind of like describing what you look like to somebody — you know what you look like but it’s impossible to describe. I don’t even think about it, I just do it.”
    In the tradition of classic blues musicians, JJ Grey is a storyteller. While he sometimes uses things and events going on around him, such as with the first track from the new album titled “War.”
See ‘Country Ghetto,’ D3
    Almost every song writer has their own unique way of going about song writing, and JJ Grey is no exception.
    “I just try not to get inspired,” he said, “I try to just let it happen.”
    He also said that whenever he has tried to be inspired by something, it doesn’t quite turn out the way he planned so he prefers to wait for the inspiration to come naturally.
    Grey said that he grew up listening to blues, bluegrass, classic country music, rock and classic R and B. He never really stove to be a musician as a kid, it was something that kind of just happened.
    “I sort of backed my way into it,” he said, “As far as trying to make a go of it, I really decided to try to anchor it down probably around 1992.”
    Grey said that he and his band, MORFRO (who was named after a lumber yard Grey once worked for), want their live show to feel “truthful.”
    “For it to be up moments and down moments, most of all it has to feel real and feel truthful and with as much passion and bravado as I can. To let the story tell itself,” Grey said about what he wants to achieve in his live performance.
    JJ Grey and MOFRO are currently working on another album, which they hope to release sometime next year. As far as his goals for the future go, he said, “Just keep going, one day at a time.”

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