About the event

The music of JJ Grey & Mofro is a deep, soulful blend of blues, rock, folk, funk, gospel, R&B, and personal, Southern-inspired narratives. The north Florida sage and soul-bent swamp rocker is an unfettered, blissful performer, singing with a blue-collared spirit over the bone-deep grooves of his compositions. His presence before an audience is something startling and immediate, at times a funk rave-up, other times a sort of mass-absolution for the mortal weaknesses that make him and his audience human. When you see JJ Grey & Mofro live—and you truly, absolutely must—the man is fearless. He delivers his songs with compassion and a relentless honesty, a fierceness and intimacy. 

JJ Grey is a natural storyteller with a gift for delivering thoughtful and profound messages in a down-to-earth, laid-back way, while maintaining a level of intensity that goes straight to your core. As a boy, Grey was drawn to country-rockers and the luminaries of Memphis soul with some hip-hop inflections thrown in the mix. He began touring as Mofro in the late 1990s, with backbeats that crossed Steve Cropper with George Clinton and a lyrical directness that made his debut LP Blackwater (2001) a calling-card among roots-rock aficionados. Soon, he was expanding his tours beyond the United States and the United Kingdom, playing ever-larger clubs and eventually massive festivals, as his fan base grew from a modest group of loyal initiates into something resembling a national coalition. 

A true Southern renaissance man, JJ Grey’s intensely charismatic live performances, combined with the incredible musicianship of Mofro, have connected with audiences all over the world, playing major events like Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits Festival, Glastonbury, North Sea Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, and Fuji Rock in Japan. Their work has been praised by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and NPR, among others.