''Country Ghetto'' is the third album from the band

JJ Grey & Mofro JJ Grey & Mofro (formerly Mofro) is an American Southern rock/Swamp rock band from Jacksonville, Florida. History Early career The early days of Mofro can be traced back to the mid-1990s when John Higginbotham, aka "JJ Grey," and Daryl Hance ...

. It was their first to be released by the band's new label, Alligator Records, after JJ Grey & Mofro had left

Fog City Records Fog City Records is an independent record label originally based in San Francisco. Founded in 1996 by producer/engineer Dan Prothero, the label's first release was ''Coolin' Off'' which helped the career of New Orleans–based band Galactic. This ...

. The

Gadsden flag The Gadsden flag is a historical American flag with a yellow field depicting a timber rattlesnake coiled and ready to strike. Beneath the rattlesnake are the words Dont Tread on Me. Some modern versions of the flag include an apostrophe in th ...

is represented on the cover of the album with the words "Don't Tread on Me" on the rear of the booklet. The album featured slower, more soulful songs such as "The Sun is Shining Down", along with faster, and more

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...

type songs such as "War" and "Country Ghetto". The song, "The Sun is Shining Down", was featured in the opening scene of the finale of

Season 3 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

of ''

House of Cards A house of cards (also known as a card tower or card castle) is a structure created by stacking playing cards on top of each other, often in the shape of a pyramid. "House of cards" is also an expression that dates back to 1645 meaning a struc ...

''.

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

's Andy Whitman states that the band "revisit the hallowed but largely forsaken musical environs of

swamp rock Swamp rock is a genre of rock music Rock is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in ...

. Taking their cues from early

Creedence Clearwater Revival Creedence Clearwater Revival, commonly abbreviated as CCR or simply Creedence, was an American Rock music, rock band formed in El Cerrito, California. The band consisted of lead vocalist, lead guitarist, and primary songwriter John Fogerty, h ...

and

Tony Joe White Tony Joe White (July 23, 1943 – October 24, 2018), nicknamed the Swamp Fox, was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist, best known for his 1969 hit " Polk Salad Annie" and for "Rainy Night in Georgia", which he wrote but which was first ...

, Mofro play a slinky, sinuous brand of Louisiana soul-funk-blues, while Grey himself alternates between the good ol' boy debauchery of

Ronnie Van Zant Ronald Wayne Van Zant (January 15, 1948 – October 20, 1977) was an American singer, best known as the founding lead vocalist and primary lyricist of the southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. He was the older brother of Johnny Van Zant, the cu ...

and

Lynyrd Skynyrd Lynyrd Skynyrd (, ) is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Jacksonville, Florida in 1964. The group originally formed as My Backyard and comprised Ronnie Van Zant (vocals), Gary Rossington (guitar), Allen Collins (guitar), Larry Junstrom ...

and the classic soul entreaties of

Otis Redding Otis Ray Redding Jr. (September 9, 1941 – December 10, 1967) was an American singer and songwriter. He is regarded as one of the greatest singers in the history of American popular music and a seminal artist in soul music and rhythm and blues. ...

and

Clarence Carter Clarence George Carter (born January 14, 1936) is an American singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. His most successful songs include "Slip Away (Clarence Carter song), Slip Away", "Back Door Santa" (both released 1968), "Patches (Ch ...

." He goes onto to state that "''Country Ghetto'' is a down-and-dirty delight, and a fine addition to the swamp rock canon." AllAboutJazz's Chris M. Slawecki states "it's how Creedence Clearwater Revival might have sounded had they come along after grunge instead of before: Hand-stitched, unpretentious, honest blues." Doug Colette states "''Country Ghetto'' feels like everything that is the blues while mostly sounding nothing like it."

Track listing

Personnel

*JJ Grey - vocals, keys, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, twelve string guitar, harmonica, bass *Daryl Hance - guitar, slide guitar *Adam Scone - organ, organ bass *George Sluppick - drums

References

2007 albums Alligator Records albums JJ Grey & Mofro albums Albums produced by Dan Prothero {{2007-rock-album-stub