Mofro, Olustee, and the Blues of Lost Places
Olustee by JJ Grey and Mofro (2024)
Reviewed by Thomas Chesnes
Some songs or artists are significant enough that you know exactly where you were when you first heard them. For me, the song was “Lochloosa,” the place was my departed friend Jeff Shingledecker’s (yes, that was his real name) garage. It was a meeting place of sorts, there was always a car on the lift, Ford Mustang parts lying around, a variety of beverages, and perpetual background music. As gifted as Jeff was as a mechanic and contractor, he was a musician at the root of his soul. He played in a variety of bands, pictures of him in the hairband eighties were a source of joy (for us) and ridicule. For a music lover like myself, having a source for eclectic new music like Shingledecker was a gift.
On one particular night, a live recording of “Lochloosa” by JJ Grey and Mofro came through the shop speakers.
“Did you hear that? Did he say canebrake?! “I said.
A canebrake is a common name for a timber rattlesnake, a species found in north Florida through the northeastern United States, west to Texas. People don’t normally sing about species of pit vipers. Not in a positive way, at least.
This particular artist did.
“I swear it's ten thousand degrees in the shade
Lord have mercy knows - how much I love it
Every mosquito every rattlesnake
Every canebrake – everything
Every alligator every blackwater swamp”
“Canebrake?!”
The song was an ode to a swamp. And it spoke to me through the haze of the night and the whirl of power tools.
I am a trained systems ecologist with a specialization in subtropical wetlands and estuaries. I understand the novel appreciation of “swamp” things: a sense of physical discomfort, the smell of organic, reduced sediments, the constant buzzing of flying insects, the call of wading birds, the splashes of critters on the move–but in that discomfort and noise there is also an insulation and quiet from the unnatural world.
Wetlands are home to many “non charismatic” organisms which typically do not gain public support or attention. My research has often championed these types of organisms; I have published on barnacles, snakes, snails, jellyfish, and seagrasses, most of which are not given much concern by the public. (Seagrasses have recently been given some attention by the media, in particular because of connections between seagrass declines and the deaths of manatees who consume them). As said, you normally do not hear odes to jellyfish or snakes. In addition, I was familiar with the actual Lochloosa Lake and wetlands from a decade of living in the Gainesville area; these were important research (and bass fishing) spots.
For those new to Mofro, the song “Lockloosa” is a great introduction. If you’ve got twelve minutes, sample the live version. Mofro are a tight, funky, skillful band from Jacksonville, and JJ Grey’s delivery of lyrics is best described as soulful. Their genre is hard to nail down; some songs are best described as a funky swamp rock, others may be described as a Southern front porch revival, some are basic blues, others silky, soulful ballads.
The Blues genre comes in many forms and flavors but the sense of loss is a driving universal theme. In “Lochloosa,” the blues derives from an impending loss of place that most native Floridians have experienced, especially among those of us who spend time in natural habitats. These places may vary. Beyond the beaches and coastlines obvious to non-Floridians, there are numerous noncoastal habitats of value, many imperiled and subject to loss and in need of defending: be it wetlands, rocky pinelands, or endemic scrub habitat.
This underlying source of the Blues resonates in the next verse of the song:
“All we need is one more damn developer
Tearing her heart out
All we need is one more Mickey Mouse
Another golf course another country club
Another gated community
Lord I need her
Lord I need her
And she's slipping away”
Life imitated art in August 2024, when plans were leaked to build three golf courses on endemic coastal scrub habitat within Jonathan Dickinson State Park in southeastern Florida. The project was presumably fast tracked for approval with minimal public input or oversight. Once the plan was made public, it was met with significant, organized pushback that united local citizens and politicians from across the political spectrum. To date, the project has been shelved and the whistleblower who leaked the plans has been fired from his position. This event showed the galvanizing effects of environmental issues among Floridians. Here, lament transformed into protest and action.
After my introduction to Mofro in Shingledecker’s garage, I had their discography on high rotation, albeit digitally. (Since then, I have purchased physical vinyl discs of theirs that actually rotate.) The theme of Place, and the dread (and impending Blues) of loss stretches across their catalog.
The theme is poignant in song “Florida,” off their first album Blackwater from 2001.
“It's like watching someone you love die slow
Yeah they're killing her one piece at a time
I know some fools who think I should let go
But they never seen Florida through my eyes
Florida I know you're out there hiding from me
You get harder and harder to find
Everyday she keeps slipping away
Florida please don't fade on me now”
Since 2001, Florida’s population has increased from nearly 16 million to over 23 million in 2024.
Not all of their songs are pessimistic about progress, many are a celebration of the moment, place, life, and love. One example is the song “Orange Blossoms,” off the 2008 album of the same name. Whereas a song can take us back to a place and time, olfactory stimulations (smells) are closely linked to deep memories, presumably due to the anatomical structure and location of the respective lobes in the mammalian brain.
Smells are often connected to powerful emotions and associations, especially strong, unique smells such as a grove of citrus trees in bloom. Most native central and south Floridians know this distinct smell and many of us have a memory that connects us to our childhood. Citrus groves (and associated aromas) are not as common in Florida now as in past decades. Many were converted into developments to accommodate the millions of new transplants to the state. In this song, JJ Grey connects the orange blossom aroma to young, lost love in an upbeat blues fashion.
Infull disclosure, when my colleague Elizabeth Stice (who is the founder and editor of this review Orange Blossom Ordinary) discussed her new venture and my potential contribution, I initially thought of this song which eventually inspired this project. You got to love neural connections.
Olustee (2024) is JJ Grey and Mofro’s tenth album, their first since 2015. Olustee is a town located in northern Florida and is the site of the largest Civil War battle Florida. As with the earlier recordings, the theme of Place, in particular Florida Places resounds throughout the new album.
The album opens with “The Sea,” a melodic ode to not only the physical body of water, but the importance of the personal and therapeutic effects of spending time in the natural environment. To this listener, the theme is reminiscent of Wendell Berry’s poem “The Peace of Wild Things.”
“Top of the World” is a song celebrating many a native Floridian’s happy place – spending the day being anchored off a sandbar. Ironically, being on “Top of the World” means usually being submerged a few feet below sea level.
Song four is the title track “Olustee,” which is not about the Civil War battle but the Florida Wildfires of 1998, often referred to as the Florida Firestorm. A severe drought following a period of el Niño-induced overgrowth led to a summer season of several thousand separate wildfires over northeastern Florida. During this time, I was living in the Florida Keys researching barnacles and seagrasses. My advisor was based in Gainesville and on occasion I would need to leave my post on “Top of the World” in Key Largo and meet in Gainesville. The most direct route is to take the Florida Turnpike toll road up the center of the state. A graduate student at the time, I did not have the exorbitant funds to pay for toll roads, so I frequently took Interstate 95 up the east coast and would cut across these pine forests to get to central Florida. The memories of the devastation in these areas are haunting. Many of us are concerned about the next Florida drought in the context of millions of more people and the new development spread over countless acreage of once natural areas. The song, however, is a funky jam and I am sure will be fun to hear live.
“Seminole Wind” follows, a cover originally written and performed by country artist and fellow Floridian John Anderson. The theme of the lament of loss of place is apparent in this song, coming from perspective of Seminole War Chief Osceola and loss of the historic Everglades. This song already has a place in the canon of environmental anthems since the original release in1992. JJ Grey does the cover justice and fits in the context of the album.
Other songs on the album are more celebratory. “Wonderland,” “Free High,” and “Rooster” are upbeat, funky songs expressing the joy of being alive, in love and in the moment. These will also be highlights of their live show. “Starry Night” is a soulful love song, taking the listener from the indigo light into dark, with orchestration, horns, and sultry background vocals (and presumably a lack of mosquitos).
The album closes with “Deeper than Belief,” another melodic ballad similar in tempo and style to the opening track “The Sea”. Here, the tone is more reflective, rather than emphasis on a physical place, the emphasis is on one’s place in the world and universe. Stylistically and symbolically, it is an appropriate bookend to the album.I am a better scientist than music critic. There is no scientific method to distinguish why some works of music or art are better than others. A judgment on the quality of the creative or metaphysical is always subject to subjectivity. That being said, I found Olustee to be a quality offering, consistent with what is expected from the band’s previous efforts. I know my bias; I am sucker for soulful lyrics and a funky rhythm section.
The consensus among fans, however, is that JJ Grey and Mofro are best experienced live. They are highly regarded as a live act, often on tour playing shows and festivals worldwide including dates in Florida in December 2024.
Tom Chesnes, Ph.D. is an overeducated beach bum and a native Floridian. He typically works in and writes about the ecology of subtropical wetlands.
