Continuing to improve

Reviewed September 2010

Not since the late Bob Greenlee was running his tiny but influential King Snake label out of his garage in Sanford, Fla., in the '80s and '90s have we heard the kind of meaty swamp blues that J.J. Grey & Mofro continue to turn out.

Now on their fifth album, the recently released "Georgia Warhorse" finds Grey and band pulling off that delicate and rare accomplishment of showing continuing musical growth while not straying too far stylistically from what made them successful in the first place. Like the Band or Little Feat, each Mofro album finds the band creating ever more complex, more interesting songs – but songs so distinctive in their voicing, structure and performance that they're instantly identifiable.

But unlike, say, Cake, whose quirky sound quickly devolved into cliche, Grey and Mofro find more than enough elbow room and inspiration in their rock-blues hybrid to keep things fresh. On the 11 tracks here, the band is as enthusiastic and energetic as on its debut nine years ago. And with noticeably improved material (and musicianship), "Georgia Warhorse" is still Mofro through and through – only better.

Review by Jim Trageser. Jim is a writer and editor living in Escondido, Calif., and was a contributor to the "Grove Press Guide to Blues on CD" (1993) and "The Routledge Encyclopedia of the Blues" (2005).