JJ Grey

Florida born and bred, JJ Grey's music mixes raw rural blues with tough, swampy Southern rock, generating a sound that has a loose, natural feel while maintaining a potent edge, and his songs draw deep on his heritage as well as his clear-eyed perspective on the world around him. Grey grew up in a small town 40 miles south of Jacksonville, FL, and when he was young he developed a passion for surfing. While Grey enjoyed several years wandering the world's beaches as a surf bum, his love of music brought him back home and he began honing his skills as a guitarist and writing songs. While working a day job fixing air conditioners, Grey met Daryl Hance, a co-worker who played guitar. Grey wanted to start a band and he teamed up with Hance to form JJ Grey & Mofro, who earned a loyal following in the South for their gritty swamp rock. In 1994, a record company in Great Britain heard Grey's demo and offered Mofro a record deal; the band flew to the U.K. for recording sessions, but the deal fell through at the last minute, and Grey and Hance assembled a new version of Mofro with English musicians in hopes of landing another contract. Ironically, Grey's search for a new record deal brought him back to the United States when his music came to the attention of Dan Prothero, a producer and engineer who runs the San Francisco-based independent label Fog City Records. Prothero liked Grey and Mofro's music, and both produced and released their 2001 debut album, Blackwater. A second album with Fog City, Lochloosa, appeared in 2004, and Grey and Mofro developed a growing nationwide fan base through constant touring and positive word of mouth, playing coveted spots on the festival circuit (including Bonnaroo, the Austin City Limits Festival, and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage...