It had been over one year since I last visited The Bamboo Room, one of the best places to hear live blues music in South Florida (and possibly the entire United States). Finally given the opportunity to visit one of my favorite music venues, I was thrilled that I was going to have an opportunity to see Mofro, a Jacksonville, Florida based group, for the first time in a live performance. Having missed the band on their travels through the Upper Midwest while touring with B. B. King, I thought this would be a great opportunity to correct an earlier missed opportunity.
After driving over an hour north to Lake Worth, imagine my distress when I found out that the Saturday night show was sold out and there were no tickets available. Luckily, as I was standing outside of the club trying to assess my options on a rainy and miserable night, a couple stood outside discussing what to do with an extra ticket. My ears perked up immediately as I inquired as to the availability of a ticket and my willingness to purchase it right then and there. So, thanks to the timely declaration from my new friends Lauren and Darrell (along with their sick friend Kristi), I was able to get inside the Bamboo Room for an evening with Mofro
Lead by the talented duo of J. J. Grey and Daryl Hance, Mofro is a four piece group that also includes George Stuppick on drums and Adam Scone on Hammond organ. Russell Hibbard, owner of the Bamboo Room, described the band to me as “the new blues sound of the 21st century.” Truer word could have not been provided to describe this talented group and their version of deep fried funk-soul laden, swamp blues. With J. J. Gray serving as lead man, providing vocals, harp, guitar and electric piano (not to mention tambourine), Daryl “Silent Storm” Hance sits quietly to his side and tears off some mean, mean slide guitar. With Stuppick providing a solid drum beat and Scone backing things up on Hammond and pedal bass, the band has created a sound that is unique and entertaining to young and old blues fans alike.
The band performed a number of tunes from their two Swampland Records releases, Lochloosa and Blackwater along with a number of other original and unique sounding covers from the likes of Millie Jackson, Asie Payton and Junior Kimbrough. After a charged up intro by Hibbard, the band opened with a hard edged guitar boogie entitled “No Sugar Tonight,” with Grey and Hance sharing guitar duties. For the following tune, “Stone Lazy Summer,” Grey quickly moved to the electric piano on another great song that included a fine Hammond solo by Adam Scone.
Grey then paid tribute to Millie Jackson with a story and song that included her immortal advice to women, “Don’t ever leave your man alone with your best girlfriend,” and to men, “Say the right things to a woman.” Following this advice, Grey burst out with a chorus that seemed a bit contradictory as Millie would supposedly claim that, “Give it up goddam, give it up right now,” should be the words flowing from the man’s mouth to a woman. Grey laughingly commented that this seemed to be something than a man would say if he really wanted to get physically injured by a woman.
The band as a whole remained impressive as they moved into the title track from their first CD, “Blackwater.” Grey continued to demonstrate his versatility, now breaking out the harp for some nice fills, playing off of Hance’s SCREAMING slide guitar and finishing with a nice solo on the electric piano. The band then performed another song from Blackwater entitled “Jookhouse” that included another fine organ solo and Grey whipping out the tambourine for additional effect.
Mofro cruised towards its first break of the evening with a pair of songs from their latest CD, Lochloosa, wrapped around a great cover of a song written by the late, Asie Payton, “Take It to the Bridge.” Grey’s recognition and education of the audience with a bit of blues history made the show even more entertaining for me. On either side of “Take It to the Bridge” were two of my favorite songs from Lochloosa, the very heavy “Dirtfloorcracker” and the very entertaining “Six Way From Sunday” with more excellent slide from the silent man on the side, Daryl Hance, to close the set.
Unfortunately, I had a plane to catch the next morning and had to end my evening after saying hello to the band and picking up some autographs on my copies of the two Mofro recordings. Nevertheless, Mofro put on a great show and one that would have had the entire crowd on their feet and dancing if there had been any room in the packed house. Mofro is a band clearly on the edge of greater national recognition and one you should not miss if you get a chance to see them perform live. To learn more about the band, purchase CDs or find out about their upcoming performance schedule, check out their website at www.mofro.net.
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