Q&A: JJ Grey

JJ Grey is trying to remember the first song he ever wrote. After exiting a Dallas hotel, the rock ‘n’ soul singer loads his suitcase for the drive to Austin, and decides the tune was a rocker called “Glass”—“somewhere between R.E.M. and Black Sabbath”—penned when he was 15.

“It was about a dude totally crazy about some chick on TV…and I don’t mean he’s in love with her, the dude is crazy,” Grey, now in his early 40s, remembers. “Hopefully nothing I do today is still there from that song.”

Two weeks ago Grey finished recording the follow-up to his spirited fourth LP, 2008’s “Orange Blossoms.” His favorite track on the upcoming album, tentatively titled “Georgia Warhorse,” is “King Hummingbird,” which swells from a breeze to a hurricane. He cut the LP with longtime producer Dan Prosser at Retrophonics, the studio where Grey has recorded since he was 18. “I like an album that feels like a great movie,” says Grey, who is based in Jacksonville, Fla. “Like ‘Lonesome Dove,’ where you laugh, you cry, you do it all.”

In November, Alligator Records issued “Choice Cuts,” a Grey best-of compilation that’s his first wax release and Alligator’s first since Otis Rush’s “Lost in the Blues” in 1991. “Choice Cuts” includes a freshly minted cover of Van Morrison’s “Tupelo Honey,” with Grey playing all the instruments. “I really like the ballads on vinyl, like ‘The Sun Is Shining Down,’ ” Grey says.

When I think of your records, I think of the rich tones. Where do you draw sonic inspiration from?
Anything done at Stax, and everything done at Muscle Shoals. But then again about anything done at Motown in Detroit and a lot of the stuff from the Record Plant in L.A. and Atlantic stuff in New York. Anything Tom Dowd ever engineered sounds great. On “Orange Blossom” a record we used to set up a lot of the tones was Dobie Gray’s “Drift Away.” That track is so banging.

What’s something new you’ve learned about singing over the past year or two?
That I’m not in control. When I sing best is when I’ve let go and it’s in control of itself, and then it will hit notes and do things. It will go. My voice has gotten a little lower as I got older. Now it’s like, who you trying to kid? You can’t sing like a girl anymore.

What artists do you feel have the most evocative album titles?
I love Van Morrison record titles. U2 and Metallica always had great record titles.

You’ve been doing some shows with Mavis Staples and Booker T. Jones.
Last night was the first night, and immediately the first thing that leapt out at me was subtlety. Like how a symphony can slice it down to the most minute thing and then sound like a 747 taking off. They can do all of those things and consequentially you feel everything they do.

What’s a song that when you hear it on your car stereo, it makes you speed up?
Anything by AC/DC. “Back in Black” is great but I think I’m going to have to go with “Dirty Deeds (Done Dirt Cheap).”

A New York Times writer recently compared your guitar playing to “a young Jerry Garcia.”
He didn’t watch close enough. (Laughs.) I’m nowhere near that guy.

What’s your favorite thing about your home in Florida?
Fifty-four full-grown pecan trees. They’re beautiful.

JJ Grey & Mofro play The Handlebar at 8:30 p.m. April 8 (with Band of Heathens). Tickets are $16. For more information, call 864-233-6173 or visit www.mofro.net.