Feature

Mobile’s Spreadhead elite will be at the beach for a multi-day festival soon. With new guitarist Jimmy Herring, Widespread is touring heavily (nothing new to them) in support of their latest release “Earth to America.”

Before Widespread takes the stage on the second night, the Spreadheads will be turned on to the sounds of J.J. Grey and Mofro. Mofro has released the very impressive “Country Ghetto” on Alligator Records. We recently talked to Grey.

SC: You’re pretty psyched up about playing with Widespread at a sold-out show. What are you bringing to the table that night?

JG: We got horns for one thing, which is different from anything we’ve had on any other tour. We’re just getting motivated to get in there and get it done, one way or the next. We’re gonna do something even if it’s wrong. We got that kinda attitude (laughing).

SC: How did you come up with the title “Country Ghetto?”

JG: You know, it formulated in my brain a long time ago, actually, on our first tour that we went on in the U.S. I grew up so different than the people that I was around, not that they grew up bad or any better or any worse than me. It was just different. I don’t know, I just felt like by the rest of the country’s standards, primarily outside of the rural South or outside the country, pretty much, in the big towns. I had never been in any big towns. People just got the idea that the only place that there’s a ghetto is in the city. It wasn’t that way at all. A ghetto ain’t necessarily a bad place all the way across the board, whether it’s in Harlem or whether it’s in rural Florida, or Mississippi or Iowa for that matter.

SC: This was produced by your longtime friend Dan Prothero (Galactic, Papa Mali). What was it like working with him in the studio on this one?

JG: It was even easier, and he was happy from the get-go. I bought a recording rig a little while back, and I’ve always demo’d the stuff. Even on “Blackwater,” I demo’d all the songs pretty much before we hit the studio, other than a couple of songs. I demo, the band learns them, and we hit the studio. We did that for each record. For this one, I have a better recording rig at the house, so I was able to spend more time and fine tune stuff. So, when we got to the studio, they had had a really concrete idea on where things were going. It made it easier. It made it easier on me too, singing. I sang the songs and recorded the singing several times at a time. It was almost like practicing before we went into the studio.

SC: One quality I found listening to “Country Ghetto” is the music reflects the soul sounds of the mid/late ‘60s. Whenever you were writing the songs for this album, what were your expectations for the music?

JG: Well, I definitely wanted it to sound like the era you were talking about, not so much to sound retro or like an era, but because those sounds sound better to me and to Dan Prothero and to the guys that play in the band. It sounds better than the stuff they put out now. Not necessarily the records but the music equipment. Arrangement wise, to me it’s a golden era of music, and it just sounds better. I don’t like it if it’s so clean and clear. I like it a little dirty, a little stinky (chuckles).

SC: You’re quite the storyteller with your music. What kind of stories are you telling on this one?

JG: Well, you know different things. From the title track and what it’s about, it’s about growing up and the cultural values that was placed on a boy growing who’s expected to become a man. It’s another thing that song mirrors too about how kids aren’t expected to become adults. Right now, adults are trying to be kids, and it’s sorta weird. The song “War” is about the social climate right now with people for going to war and people against going to war and the whole idea that it’s hard to make the world black and white when you can’t make the world black and white in your mind. My mind changes every few minutes about different subjects, and it’s hard to make the world black and white when it’s gray in my own head.

Then, it’s on into ‘Circles.’ ‘Circles’ is the response to ‘War.’ The song ‘War’ is the call, and ‘Circles’ is the response. It’s the whole idea that sooner or later, you have just gotta let go and move on and quit harpin’ on what’s happened to you or what’s not happened to you. To me, it’s nothing new under the sun. It’s what’s been going for thousand of years.

‘The Sun is Shining Down’ is a lesson I learned from my grandfather. The song is based on a conversation him and my grandmother had as she was carrying him to a hospital while he was dying of a heart attack, and he died before she could get him there. It’s about the little things are more important than the big things. The little things are good enough sometimes. It’s all kinds of little things, and at the end of the day, it’s basically the way I’ve kinda drifted through life, I guess. I try not to write them; I try to let them write themselves. That happened more so with this record than the other records. I think I tried harder on the other records to make a record sound a certain way and make a song a certain direction, not all of them just here and there. On this record, I felt like most of the songs just happened.

SC: So, what’s next for J.J. Grey and Mofro?

JG: If we can survive and just play music and be able to do another record, to be honest with you, I’d be happy with that. Let the chips fall where they may and let it go. You’re busy, and you’re trying to get out there and make a living and do what you love at the same time, and that’s a balancing act.

Fortunately, it hasn’t been that big of a balancing act. I recorded ‘Country Ghetto’ on my own dime, and then Alligator signed it. They didn’t want to get involved and try to change anything. ‘Dan Prothero does a great job, and we’re just gonna stay out of the way and y’all just go with it.’ It never had to balance something like, ‘Well, we gotta come to the table and meet their demands to make the record like this.’ They were like, ‘Nah, that’s not what we’re about. We’re not that kinda record label.’ I always knew that just given the history of Alligator Records. They’re not concerned with making pop hits or anything like that. We’ll just keep doin’ what we’re doin’, little by little, pecking away.

Stephen Centanni is Lagniappe music editor. Contact him at scentanni@lagniappemobile.com.

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