JJ GREY & MOFRO at the AMP Ballantyne
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04/18/2024
AMP Ballantyne (16+ (Must have ID) - Under 16 with Parent Only)
Doors open at 06:00 PM
ON SALE NOW!
THIS EVENT WILL BE AT THE AMP IN BALLANTYNE
Impassioned singing, riff-based Southern rock, cold bloodedswamp funk and sly Memphis soul. Rich, funky blues celebrate life’s mostfundamental joys. Grey is a singer-songwriter with unforced talent and deepfeeling. --The New York Times
A deeply-rooted blend of southern-fried rock and swampfunk…richly evocative lyrics…plainspoken, blue-collar American music. --NPR
The swami of swamp rock…JJ Grey is a North Florida sage andpurveyor of the funkiest swamp rock the world has ever heard…Chicken-scratchguitar and bone-deep songs. --Oxford American
According to musician, singer and artist JJ Grey, “The bestsongs I've ever written, I never wrote. They wrote themselves. The best show Iever played, played itself and had little to do with me or talent. To me, thosethings come from the power of an honest moment, and I guess I'm trying to livein that power and not force life to cough up what I want.”
Since his first album, Blackwater, back in 2001, Grey hasbeen releasing deeply moving, masterfully written, funkified rock and frontporch Southern soul music. Now, with his new album, Olustee – his tenth andfirst in nine years, and the first he has self-produced – Grey is back, singinghis personal stories with universal themes of redemption, rebirth, hard luck,and inner peace. With his music, Grey also celebrates good times with lifelongfriends, oftentimes mixing the carnal with the cerebral in the very same song.Fueled by his vividly detailed, timeless originals spun from his own life andexperiences in the Northern Florida swampland, Grey’s gritty baritone dripswith honest passion and testifies with a preacher’s foot-pounding fervor.
With Olustee, JJ Grey has once again pushed the boundariesof his own creative musical, lyrical and vocal talents, delivering an albumthat is destined to become a stone-cold classic. Many of the songs are allsteeped in the mythical Southern stories of his ancestral Florida home andfilled with people from JJ’s life. The songs overflow with the sights andsounds of the region as told through the eyes of a poet and sung with pure,unvarnished soul. The album’s ten songs range from the introspective opener TheSea to the raucous, celebratory first radio single, Wonderland, to an escapefrom an out-of-control wildfire in the title track, to the inward-lookingcloser, Deeper Than Belief. Singing of his own personal triumphs and struggles,his hopes and desires, his friends and family, Grey’s message is simple andstrong: respect the natural world and always try to live in the moment. Andnever forget the importance of having a good time.
Grey made his recording debut in 2001 with Blackwater,following up in 2004 with Lochloosa. Both albums were released on the Fog Citylabel under the name Mofro, a moniker the young Grey chose to describe hismusic and sound while still working his day job at a lumberyard. He has sinceused the word to name his band of world-class players. In 2007, Grey signedwith Alligator Records and released a string of five popular and successfulalbums: Country Ghetto, 2008's Orange Blossoms, 2010's Georgia Warhorse, 2011’slive CD/DVD Brighter Days and 2013’s This River. Ol’ Glory was released on theProvogue label in 2015. Throughout this amazing run of releases, press, radioand years of touring helped catapult JJ Grey & Mofro further into themainstream.
JJ Grey & Mofro have played countless festivals,including Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Wakarusa, Austin City Limits Festival, ByronBay Blues Festival (Australia), Montreal Jazz Festival and Fuji Rock (Japan).Over the course of his career, Grey has shared stages with the likes of LennyKravitz, B.B. King, The Allman Brothers Band, The Black Crowes, Los Lobos, JeffBeck, Ben Harper, Booker T. Jones, Mavis Staples, and many others. Grey and hisband continue to play over 75 shows a year across the U.S. and around theworld.
JJ's songs have appeared in films and on television,including on House Of Cards, Criminal Minds, Bones, House, Flashpoint, Crash,Friday Night Lights, The Glades, The Deadliest Catch and in films including TheHoot and The Gray Man. In November 2009, JJ wrote his first film score for thecritically-acclaimed, Emmy Award-winning documentary The Good Soldier, whichappeared in theatres and on Bill Moyers Journal on PBS.
Grey, an avid outdoorsman, is a dedicated fisherman, askilled visual artist (he has designed and drawn the cover art on all of hisalbums), an avid surfer and he holds an honorary position on the board of theAngler Action Foundation, dedicated to the protection of coastal fish and fishhabitat. He has written passionately and articulately about his love for theuntrammeled environment of his North Florida home and continues to advocate forits preservation.
From his early days playing cover music behind chicken wireat a west side Jacksonville juke joint, to playing sold-out shows at some ofthe largest venues and music festivals in the world, JJ Grey has alwaysdelivered his soul-honest truths. Now, with Olustee, JJ Grey & Mofro willbring their music directly to fans as they hit the road for a massivemonths-long tour across the country and throughout the world. AllMusic says JJGrey’s music is “as authentic as the ground under your feet because that’swhere it comes from -- just before it moves, simply and directly, through thebody of the listener, into the human heart.”
CEDRIC BURNSIDE
Start time: 07:00 PM
Presented in conjunction with Maxx Music.