JJ Grey & Mofro – Olustee
11 Tracks – 50 minutes
Florida native JJ Grey is releasing his first album in nine years. Olustee is his tenth album release. JJ Grey released his first album, Blackwater, in 2001 on the independent label Fog City. That was followed three years later with Lochloosa on the same label. JJ was then signed to Alligator Records in 2007, where he released his next six albums, including The Choice Cuts, a best of album which was only released on vinyl. In 2015, he switched his next release, Ol’ Glory, to Provogue. For this new release, he returns once again to Alligator for his first self-produced album.
JJ started his career playing at raucous Jacksonville bars where the stage was protected by chicken wire, all the while working his day job at a lumber yard. However, his albums quickly gained national attention and soon he was on the stage in major venues and playing some of the largest festivals in the country and throughout the world including Montreal, Australia and Japan to name a few.
JJ plays guitars, dobro, keyboards, harmonica and provides the lead vocals on the album. He is joined by Todd Smallie on bass, Eric Brigmond on keyboards and backing vocals, Pete Winders on guitars, and Eric Mason on congas and percussion. The band is joined by trumpeters Dennis Marion, Marcus Parsley, and John Reid; Kenny Hamilton on sax and flute; Paul Curtis on bassoon; and Quinn Carson on trombone. Lev Zhurbin joins on the fadolin, a six-string instrument played like a violin, but capable of creating the sounds of that instrument as well as that of a viola or cello. Katie Dawson, Nikki Dawson, Laiken Love, and Sage Grey provide the backing vocals. And for first time on an Alligator Records release, the Budapest Symphony Orchestra provides backing on some songs.
The album opens with the plaintive “The Sea” with JJ extolling his love of the ocean. You can feel the waves crashing in as he paints a beautiful picture of the tranquility of the sea amid a quiet piano and acoustic guitar. He cites ” I belong to the sea/ Home of the free”. He picks up the pace on “Top of the World” with his backing vocalists answering his call as he declares “If you came to change the world, let me show you the door.” and the horns moving you into New Orleans. He quiets things down again with “On A Breeze” as he intones “Sail to light my love, may you see peaceful skies and all you deserve.”
The title song rocks out with the story of the tragic fires that engulfed seven counties in Eastern Florida in June 1998 that resulted from massive lightning strikes in the dry countryside. JJ’s guitar gives the feel of the flashing fire as he declares “Ya better run, better run / just as fast as you can that heat is getting closer / hear it roar, hear it roar/ all the way around Olustee like a flaming hurricane.” The fire closed 135 miles of I-95 from Jacksonville to Titusville and forced the postponement of the annual Pepsi 400 held at the Daytona International Raceway. He quiets things down again with the sole cover on the album, John Anderson’s “Seminole Wind”, a cry for the preservation of the Florida Everglades. “Progress came and took its toll / and in the name of flood control / they made plans to drain the land / now the glades is going dry”. The trumpets become a central part of this song as JJ again makes you feel his own hurt from the repercussions of man’s actions in the swamps.
He gets things jumping again with “Wonderland” as he joyously states “I feel that rhythm now girl you know / you make me want to shout Hallelujah / Oh and throw my hands to the sun.” He next asks her to “Come sit here beside me / let’s pull ourselves near to the warmth of this fire and watch the stars all appear” on “Starry Night”, a very soulful love song with full orchestration. With “Free High” he continues the joyous declarations that can take you back to something Sly and The Family Stone could have sung. He declares, “I’m rolling, I’m laughing / I’m jumping and I’m clapping/ I’m dancing, I’m reeling / I’m floating on the ceiling / I’m loving, I’m living”. All of which should give you a feel of the happiness he is proclaiming.
JJ delivers a bit of R&B on “Waiting”, a tale of procrastination as he explains, “Well I’ve never been all I could be / and I know i it ain’t never been nobody’s fault but mine”. “Rooster” gets a bit of strut going as he explains “The woman is the soul of a man…she can keep it all together when you can’t / she’s the spring from which I flow / teach me many things I don’t know / but I’m a rooster, and that’s a fact /; so, you know how I’m gonna act”. “Deeper Than Belief” ends the album with a circumspect song as he faces his place in the universe – “Feeling it spinning slow / The face of all created made me feels so small / but not alone.”
JJ Grey is an avid outdoorsman and a passionate advocate for protection of the untrammeled environment in Florida. His songs clearly range from the nature in and of the swamps and waterways of the state to an expression of the love he has of his life there. His vocals deliver a clear, soulful eloquence to his feelings for both. The songs are not really the blues, but his expressiveness certainly delivers the soul of the man with an impression of the concerns and love he feels. And in some regard, that is also the blues.
