@JJGREYandMOFRO are a southern country, blues, soul, R n B band. Mr Grey is blessed with one of those great throaty southern soul voices with a great range from a deep baritone to a balls out top of the scale yell touching all points in between.
Over these shores to promote the new album Ol’ Glory which is a little more measured than some of their previous releases they storm right in to a wail of guitar and thunder through the first song. JJ is a fine guitarist although he shares the duties tonight with his right hand man.
The band is tight with an impressive drummer, bass, horn section and a superb organist who raises the bar on every song. From the off they are out to have fun and JJ encourages them all to give a little bit more on their solos throughout the night. A broken string means an impromptu shuffle of the set list but who cares when the music is this good.
The new tracks stand out well and as is often the case given that added energy from being performed live. Early on in the evening what could be described as their holy trinity of standout songs, ’99 Shades of Crazy’, the elongated sing-along ‘Brighter Days’ and the groove heavy ‘Country Ghetto’ threaten to peak too soon but we needn’t have worried as they keep the momentum going.
The band clearly love playing together and are often indulged into solos encouraged by their enthusiastic front man with maybe one too many bass solos for me. There are many crowd participation moments who are completely engaged and rapt by the show.
They close with the title track of the new album and it’s all over for a highly energetic, enjoyable gig