Alligator

A dozen years after his striking debut, a classic slab of funky Florida-fried swamp rock, singer/guitarist JJ Grey is out with his sixth disc of new Mofro tunes, as rootsy and tantalizing
as ever. Joined by a newly retooled band, with Grey’s distinctive drawl sitting in a tight rhythm-section pocket accented by Anthony Farrell’s organ and keys along with saxophone and trumpet, he references regional touchstones again. The album’s power-ballad title song has Grey ruminating on his peaceful, easy feelings for the St. Johns River, near his native Jacksonville, while
the fatback-beating “Florabama” celebrates sweaty days, sultry nights and warm Gulf Coast breezes on the Redneck Riviera. Passions run hard, too, on “Your Lady, She’s Shady,” which is all chunky rhythms, dirty guitar scorch and woozy blues harp. Elsewhere, the old-school R&B of “Tame a Wild One” and “Standing on the Edge,” and the Southern-rock crunch of “99 Shades of Crazy” show a different side of Grey’s personality.