Country Ghetto Explained

Country Ghetto
Type:Studio
Artist:JJ Grey & Mofro
Cover:Country Ghetto.album.jpg
Released:February 2007
Recorded:2007
Studio:Retrophonics Studio, St. Augusitne, Florida
Horns & strings recorded at Threshold Studios, New York
Genre:Southern rock, blue-eyed soul, funk rock, blues rock, swamp rock
Length:45:17
Label:Alligator Records
Producer:Dan Prothero, Jesse Aratow
Prev Title:Lochloosa
Prev Year:2004
Next Title:Orange Blossoms
Next Year:2007

Country Ghetto is the third album from the band JJ Grey & Mofro. It was their first to be released by the band's new label, Alligator Records, after JJ Grey & Mofro had left Fog City Records. The Gadsden flag 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 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 of House of Cards.[1]

AllMusic's Andy Whitman states that the band "revisit the hallowed but largely forsaken musical environs of swamp rock. Taking their cues from early Creedence Clearwater Revival and Tony Joe White, 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 and Lynyrd Skynyrd and the classic soul entreaties of Otis Redding and Clarence Carter." He goes onto to state that "Country Ghetto is a down-and-dirty delight, and a fine addition to the swamp rock canon."[2]

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."[3] Doug Colette states "Country Ghetto feels like everything that is the blues while mostly sounding nothing like it."[4]

Personnel

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Greenhaus. Mike. JJ Grey, Swamps, Soul, & Revival. relix article.
  2. Web site: JJ Grey & Mofro - Country Ghetto Album Reviews, Songs & More | AllMusic . .
  3. Web site: JJ Grey & Mofro: Country Ghetto album review @ All About Jazz . 3 July 2007 .
  4. Web site: JJ Grey & Mofro: Country Ghetto album review @ All About Jazz . 4 April 2007 .