Album: Mofro <!-- none onestar twostar threestar fourstar fivestar -->

Lochloosa, GLITTERHOUSE

Mofro are JJ Grey and Daryl Hance, a couple of "backwoods country boys" from North Florida - where surf-nut Grey still lives on his grandpa's farm, growing organic vegetables in between engagements. Together, they make an equally organic form of mainly acoustic swamp-funk blues fronted by Grey's worn, grainy voice, a wonderfully warm, relaxed sound that recalls the retro stylings of G Love & Special Sauce, and a little further back, the folksy funk-soul stylings of Bill Withers. The title-track, a homesick paean to a Florida threatened by the creeping blight of golf courses and gated communities, ooozes sweat from every pore; extending the ecological theme, the gradual disappearance of the eponymous insect is lamented in "Fireflies", while regional pride is further celebrated in "Gal Youngin" and "Dirtfloorcracker" ("Them words just fills me with pride"). But more personal, urban concerns force their way into songs such as "How Junior Got His Head Put Out" - an account of a drive-by shooting set to a Bo Diddley beat - and "That Boy", in which advice is offered to a friend getting slapped around by her lover: "That boy don't love you/ He's afraid of you/ He's just a mama's boy/ Let him cry, let him cry". The most emblematic track, though, is "The Wrong Side", a Southern soul number in classic Dan Penn/ Spooner Oldham vein.