Music: Orange Blossoms
J.J. Grey & MOFRO, a favorite 'round here. Been groovin' on this song lately. Hope ya'll dig it. The video's a hoot. Check out the whole album here. See 'em live.
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Music/Livin': Sad Day at Southern Brand
Jerry Reed has passed on.
To me Jerry Reed's music has a joy and energy that's rarely been matched. And he seemed like such a fun lovin' fella, I couldn't help but smile every time I'd come across a clip of the "hairy-legged, guitar-pickin' man." To this day, I start bouncin' and kickin' and gigglin' whenever "Amos Moses" or "She got the goldmine, I got the shaft" comes on.
Mentored and urged to play more guitar in his unique finger-picking style by the great Chet Atkins, Jerry was that rare cat who could do it all and seemed to make everything seem effortless, from acting to great guitar to writing great songs, Jerry's magic came at you like it was the most natural thing in the world. A redneck renaissance man.
I remember watching him act with Burt Reynolds in W.W. and the Dixie Dance Kings, and get directed by Burt as a real bad guy in Gator. He was a laugh riot in The Waterboy with Adam Sandler. And he was great in a flick Dom Deluise directed where he played a cop (Hot Stuff - theme song by who else? Jerry Reed), and I loved him with Robin Williams in the comedy The Survivors as a crook.
Musically, just like with acting, he made it all look easy. From the funk-country-- (did he invent that? I think he did!) that drives When You're Hot You're Hot, to the country boogie jump of East Bound & Down (From Smokey and the Bandit where he was redneck-unforgetable as Cletus Snow - The Snowman)
He wrote Guitar Man and then played on it when it was recorded by the King, as well as U.S. Male at the same session.
Amos Moses is swamp-boggie-country-glam - I mean this cat from Alabama could do it all. The wiki entry is linked here. This man was more than just a sum of his achievements, wide and varied. He was 100 percent an American Original. Got a long way to go but a short time to get there. RIP wild man.
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Music/Livin': JJ Grey & MOFRO
Me, Billy T and Jobro are gettin' all jacked up for the JJ Grey and MOFRO show this Thursday night. Should be a helluva good time. Sippin' some bourbon and diggin' on some sweet swamp music. Tell your friends. Support this band. They sure are doin' it right. Here's the downlow:
JJ Grey & MOFRO is a soul and southern rock band from Jacksonville, Florida composed of JJ Grey (vocals, electric piano, acoustic guitar and electric guitar, harmonica), Daryl Hance (electric guitar and slide guitar), George Sluppick (drums), and Adam Scone (Hammond Organ). For the 2007 tour, (beginning in early Feb, '07) Dennis Marion (trumpet), and Art Edmaiston (tenor saxophone) joined up with Mofro and continue to be a part of the line-up. Their debut album, "Blackwater" was named one of the best records of the decade by amazon.com.
And here's a little from their site:
Growing up in the swamplands of northern Florida, JJ Grey became a realist early on. "You fall in love with a pig," he says, "and then one day your granddad knocks it in the head and bleeds it for butchering. You tend to grow up with a certain amount of realism in your life." JJ Grey and his band MOFRO exude rocking, funky, melodic, front porch realism in every song they play. Grey comes from a long tradition of Southern storytellers, and his songs oftentimes use the loss of his natural surroundings and the marginalization of the Southern culture he grew up in as a metaphor for universal truths. The band delivers his material with brilliant musicianship, resulting in music that is thought provoking, rhythmically dynamic and texturally mesmerizing.
JJ Grey & MOFRO's Alligator debut COUNTRY GHETTO (produced by Dan Prothero) features 12 original JJ Grey compositions that come right out of the Southern musical and literary tradition. Grey's ear for detail inhabits his songs, whether it's a story passed down to him from his grandmother or the tribulations of a childhood friend. His voice delivers them with an unflinching strength that makes the personal universal and paints a vivid portrait of an exact time or place with words and music. Like his songs, his rich, soulful vocals are forceful and commanding, seemingly old beyond his years. And the music, from smoldering soul ballads to gospel-fried funk to straight ahead rock 'n' roll, brings it all home with danceable grooves and a melodic freshness that will stay with you long after the album ends.
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