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Mofro keeps music close to home

The band from northeast Florida has experimented some, but it keeps returning to a distinctly Southern sound.

By JANET ZINK
Published May 12, 2005

When thinking of homegrown Florida rock, Tom Petty, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers immediately come to mind.

Now there's Mofro.

The band with roots outside Jacksonville combines a distinctly Southern sound with harmonica and organ and lyrics that paint pictures of mangrove forests, cypress swamps and fishing holes threatened by development.

On Lochloosa, the title track from the band's second CD, songwriter J.J. Grey sums its up:

"All we need is one more damned developer tearing our heart out.

"All we need is one more Mickey Mouse, another golf course, another country club, another gated community."

Lake Lochloosa, he said, is a place outside Jacksonville where he used to fish with his grandfather.

"It's one of my favorite places on earth," he said.

But Grey sees a Florida where houses and strip malls are taking over the hardwood hammocks and palmetto scrub.

"Where my mom and dad are there are subdivisions all up and down the road," he said. "The only saving grace is the ones out where I live, (lots are) limited to (at least) 5 acres, and most aren't that small. You can still live with the animals."

Songwriter Grey, 37, and guitarist Daryl Hance, 36, have been playing together 15 years. They've become regulars on the music festival circuit.

Grey cut his musical teeth singing in the church choir and listening to his dad's country and gospel music 8-tracks.

"We weren't allowed to listen to rock," he said.

He heard Stevie Wonder and James Brown on a little AM radio, and as he got older his father "lightened up" and let him listen to Casey Kasem's American Top 40 radio show on their way home from church.

Then his sister bought him Lynyrd Skynyrd's Gold and Platinum, and a new world opened up to him.

"Southern rock is Southern not just because of where it's from but because where it's from has so much to do with the way it sounds," he said. "Where you live shapes who you are. It certainly shapes who you are musically, unless you want to be like people on TV."

Grey wrote a lot of songs while working for a lumber yard, driving a truck that had no radio.

Over the years, Grey and Hance experimented with different genres.

"Who knows why you go down different roads," he said. "Eventually we ended up doing what was easiest, and that was music that sounded like home."

[Last modified May 11, 2005, 09:32:06]