JJ Grey & Mofro and The Wood Brothers

JJ Grey and Mofro might just be the most awesome thing to ever come from an air conditioning company in history. The seeds of the band were sewn when guitarist Daryl Hance struck up a friendship with singer and songwriter John “JJ” Grey as they both worked for an air conditioning company in their shared home town of Jacksonville, Florida. They became close duo to their shared passion for music and decided to form a band together in the early 90’s. They decided on the name Mofro Magic for themselves and spend a good couple of years building up a loyal following all over the southern states of the USA.

Strangely enough for a band so typically American in both style and sound, the band were first offered a record deal in the United Kingdom in 1994. Unfortunately, the deal fell through after some initial recording sessions and with a revamped line-up of mostly English musicians, they shortened their name to Mofro and returned to Jacksonville. They had more luck in their home town and were signed to Fog City Records by 2001, releasing their debut album “Blackwater” in the same year. Unfortunately, what little run of luck they had run out later that year as a car crash involving several members of the band stalled things for a long time.

However, nothing was going to keep this band down for long, and in 2004, they released their second album as Mofro “Lochloosa”. In 2007, they signed a new record deal and changed their name again from Mofro to JJ Grey And Mofro, and ever since then they’ve become one of the most popular new jam bands around. Their live show is utterly unmissable, and JJ Grey remains one of the great unsung heroes of rock and roll songwriting. They’re a band that has the seal of approval of both Toots and the Maytals and The Allman Brothers Band, and if that doesn’t convince you that they’re the real deal, nothing will. Highly recommended.

Indeed, The Wood Brothers' sixth outing, 'One Drop of Truth,' dives

headfirst into a deep wellspring of sounds, styles and influences. Whereas

their previous outings have often followed a conceptual and sonic

through-line, here the long-standing trio featuring brothers Oliver and

Chris Wood along with Jano Rix treat each song as if it were its own short

film. The plaintive, country-folk of the album's opening track "River Takes

The Town" gives way to the The Band-esque Americana soul of "Happiness

Jones." The wistful ballad "Strange As It Seems" floats on a cloud of stream

of consciousness, standing in stark contrast to "Sky High"—a Saturday night

barnburner built upon stinging slide guitar funk. "Seasick Emotions" is rife

with turmoil, yet "Sparking Wine" is jaunty and carefree. The end result is

undeniably The Wood Brothers' most dynamic recording to date.

Building off the success of their previous studio album, 2015's 'Paradise,'

which was dubbed "the warmest, most sublime and occasionally rowdiest Wood

Brothers release yet," by American Songwriter, the band found themselves at

a fortuitous crossroads. Following a tour with Tedeschi Trucks Ba­­­­­nd,

high profile festival dates and sold out headline shows, the band felt free

from the cyclical album release, tour, write, record and

do-it-all-over-again pressures of the traditional music business. With all

three members living in Nashville affording easy access to each other and a

wealth of local independent studios at their disposal, they started work in

January of 2017 with a new approach.

"Instead of going into one studio and recording it all at the same time, we

picked a couple studios, and started to experiment," says Chris Wood.

"Sometimes we'd just make demos of songs to see if we got anything we liked.

There was no pressure, and that really freed us up. We just did one or two

songs a day, put it aside, let the songs simmer, and then we'd have a fresh

perspective on what was working or not working. You need time to go by to

gain objectivity."

The band extended this approach to the mixing process, sending tracks tofour

different mixing engineers, each selected based on what the song demanded.

Scotty Hard (who's worked extensively with Medeski Martin & Wood, among

others) was recruited for the "edgier, funkier tunes," "Sky High" and

"Happiness Jones." Mike Poole (who worked on The Wood Brothers album 'The

Muse') mixed "Sparkling Wine" and "Strange As It Seems." Their old friend

Brandon Belle from Zac Brown's studio Southern Ground took on "Laughin' Or

Crying." The remainder of the album was mixed by Grammy Award-winning

engineer Trina Shoemaker, especially sought after by The Wood Brothers for

her work with Brandi Carlile.

While the songs on 'One Drop of Truth' achieve the goal of standing on their

own, a few common themes did, inevitably, emerge. Water—whether in a

teardrop, a storm, a river or a libation—was being used as a metaphor in the

search for truth and happiness. Chris Wood's "Seasick Emotion," one of two

songs he sings on the collection serves as a prime example: "All the blue

sky is gone / How can I get out of bed / This hurricane in my head / I'm

just a boat in a storm / How can I know where to go / When everything that I

know / Is already lost in the wind." "That one was written last fall during

a hurricane, while at the same time the election was coming up, and there

was all this crazy energy in the world," Chris reveals. "I definitely got

swept away emotionally by everything that was going on."

Album opener, "River Takes the Town," takes on both figurative and literal

meaning. It was completed just as a series of hurricanes were decimating

parts of the U.S.: "It's been a few days since I heard any word from you /

and I don't sleep easy, I don't sleep easy / and the rain keeps comin', the

rain keeps comin' / nothin's ever for certain / 'til the levee breaks down /

the water comes in and the river / the river takes the town."

Though emotional struggle is a recurring thread, so is the comforting truth

of how much wisdom comes from the hard times. The song "Happiness Jones",

was based on a news article Oliver read about how our society is addicted to

happiness, antidepressants, and the distorted "happy" reality social media

can depict. As a result, people feel like it's unnatural to be sad, yet.

sadness can be a gift: "All of my wisdom came from all the toughest days / I

never learned a thing bein' happy / all of my sufferin' came / I didn't

appreciate it / I never learned a thing being happy."

Fittingly titled, 'One Drop of Truth,' the latest entry in The Wood Brothers

evolution finds three musicians being true to themselves. At a point in

their career where most artists would be looking to strategically position

themselves for even greater commercial success, they instead turned to

artistic expression in service of the muse. In chaotic times when honesty is

in short supply and ulterior motives seem to always be at play, The Wood

Brothers put faith in themselves and ultimately their audience by writing

and recording a collection of songs that is honest and pure. As they sing on

the album's title track: "Rather die hungry / than feasting on lies / Give

me one drop of truth / I cannot deny."