J.J. Grey and Mofro perform Tuesday at Seville Quarter. / Special to GoPensacola.com
GO
WHAT: J.J. Grey and Mofro in concert.
WHEN: 8 p.m. Tuesday.
WHERE: Seville Quarter, 130 E. Government St.
TICKETS: $16 in advance; $18 at the door. All ages are welcome, but those ages 15 and younger must be accompanies by a ticketholding parent or guardian, and those younger than 21 will be subject to a $2 surcharge at the door.
DETAILS: 434-6211, or visit www.sevillequarter.com.
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J.J. Grey named his latest album for a grasshopper.
The Jacksonville-based singer/songwriter, who continues to grow a devoted fanbase for his unique blend of country soul, rock 'n' roll and R&B said he takes a bit of personal inspiration from the Georgia workhouse — so much so that he made it the name of his fifth album with his band, Mofro.
"I'd like to have more and more in common (with the workhorse)," Grey says during a telephone interview to promote Tuesday's concert at Seville Quarter. "That's what I'm working toward. It's what my grandmother embodies to me, too, this whole 'take it as it comes, it'll all work out,' relaxed-type atmosphere, but still, with a real toughness, a strong ability to roll with it and at the same time, resist it. I'm a long ways from it. Maybe one day when I grow up."
Q: For those who don't know, what does Mofro mean?
A: It's just a word that a friend of mine used to say to me all the time when I worked n the lumberyards. I worked there for 10, 11 years, and he was a generation older tham me. Hanging out with him calmed me down a lot. He used to always say, "What's up mofro?" It doesn't mean one particular thing, and I wanted the music to be the same thing — to be Southern and to not mean one particular thing. So I thought that's what I'd call the music or the band or whatever.
Q: You're known for cherishing your Southern roots. What do you think that brings to your music?
A: The world that you see everyday shapes who you are and what you do. Unless you spend a lot of energy trying to invent a world or reinvent yourself, you have to roll with it. Who you are and what you do is going to come out every time, by default. I feel like if I let go and let it happen, whatever is real — or as real as I can be a part of it — that will be the most authentic that thing can be. When I do that, it's going to come out and come through. All the things you've done day to day in your life is going to show .
Q: The new album is named for a grasshopper. What does this collection of songs have in common with a real Georgia workhorse?
A: It spans a whole range from "I'm sick of this (stuff) and I ain't going to take it no more" to "I'm sick of my own (stuff) and I ain't going to take it from me" — the toughest and at the same time the easiest battle of my life. If you look back and say, "That was easy, but at the time, it seemed like scaling Everest." Some of the songs have that in it. Like any record, I like the thing to have different moments. Like a good story, it has sad moments and angry moments and happy moments. I like for an album to have all of those things.
Q: You got to work with two of your heroes on the new album. Talk about singing with Toots Hibbert.
He's my favorite singer of all time — to me, he's the greatest soul singer alive. He moves me. I got to go down to Jamaica and hang out with him, and Kingston felt like Jacksonville did when I was growing up. Kingston really had that strong feeling of home.
He embodies that, too. He's got a toughness to him, but at the same time, relaxes and takes it as it comes with a smile on his face. Everyone's got hardships. But his ability to smile through that is what I admire. I don't know how that happens. Maybe you're an old soul, or maybe if you get beat down enough, all you can do is smile, and them yourealize that's all it took.
Q: Derek Trucks appears on the album, too. Talk about working with him.
A: He lives right down the street. He's a good friend, and he came over and did that in like 20 minutes. He's such a bad-ass. He's got that smile, too — him, Susan (Tedeschi, Trucks' wife and a well-known blues singer), his whole family, they're all salt of the earth. When he plays, it sounds like he's singing. It's got that voice that transcends and goes beyond playing a guitar. When that comes out, nothing else matters anymore. He's not even playing a guitar, he's singing through a guitar. It's not chops, it's not even skill, it's beyond that. The people I like, my favorites, they all just seem to do that. Everything falls away and there's somthing left that you can't explain, you've just gotta know it. We can think about it and talk about it, but to actually experience it, it's beyond thinking. Those are the things I've always gravitated toward. Derek does that and makes it look easy. It's the allure of watching someone who's not thinking, it just flies out of them, whether it's Michael Jordan or Derek Trucks. Those are the times that you're not tracking time anymore. That'w what we all want.
Q: Talk a bit about your recording and songwirting process.
Q: Each day, as you're going about your business, and suddenly something pops into your head. Sometimes it's a whole song — like "The Sun is Shining Down" popped whole into my head; in minutes, I had the lyrics and the music, the arrangements, all of that stuff.
I feel like the more work it takes, the worse it is and the more it doesn't hold up to the test of time for me. It doesn't stay with me as songs that just kind of come in from nowhere.
So I go home and I don't set out time to say, "Today, I'm going to write songs." I just go into my studio and start pedalling. Even if I try to work on a specific song, in 10 minutes I might be onto something else, or I might say "the hell with this" and get out of there.
Real inspiration is not what you think, it pales in comparison to what you know and what flows in from thin air. The more I think about it and try hard to do it, the harder it gets.
Recording is the same way. Sometimes I get stuff in the home studio that sticks all the way to the record. And when I get sick of hearing myself, I call in some real players and go to the studio and see what happens. I'll have an idea, but I'm not trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.
The secret I'm learning is not to get frustrated. If you chill out for a moment, a round peg will appear. If you're inspried, it just writes itself. And it's the same way with the music in the studio.
Q: How does that translate on stage?
A: A lot of that is determined by that night and that moment. For instance, a song like "King Hummingbird" — it's not that it wouldn't go over well, it just wouldn't be the right song to play at 3 a.m. during JazzFest at Tipitina's (in New Orleans). At that time, it's just time to get down. Life will say, "that's not the right time, maybe you should play something else."
For (the live show) to really shine and really work, it takes audience participation. Anything you do that's really subtle requires a different audience participation than when it's really rockin'. All the music requires audience participation, but a song like "King Hummingbird" or "Lochaloosa" would require the participation to come down and feel every subtle thing. All that determines the set list for a show. The day and the life always define things. I might drop or add a song (in the midst of a show) when I feel it would work.
Sometimes you get an audience that is really rocking and going crazy, and that's my favorite thing. I like audiences that are attentive the whole time, but I also like audiences who are drunk and going crazy all night. The perfect audience balances out between all that stuff. We're lucky that we have a professional audience.
