165. G. Love
On today’s show is Garrett Dutton, better known to you and me as G. Love and his band G. Love and Special Sauce.
G. Love appeared on my radar in the early 90’s when I was just getting into playing in bands. Originally from Philadelphia, but breaking out of the Boston music scene, Special Sauce’s debut album was pretty massive in my world. It mixed blues, soul, rap and hip hop in an organic way that no one else was doing. Garrett was influenced by everyone from John Hammond to Lightning hopkins and Muddy Waters, The Beatles to the Beastie Boys and Schoolly D and he’s one of the few people that can convincingly meld those influences into cohesive music. He got into playing guitar at a really young age, learning Beatles tunes, and eventually found his way to Bob Dylan, which led to playing harmonica, which led to John Hammond, who opened the musical floodgates for him.
He moved to Boston in the early 90’s and started playing around Cambridge with his band that included Jimmy Jazz on bass, and Jeffrey Clemens on drums, who made up the perfect rhythm section for the music they were making. The band came to be known as G. Love and Special Sauce, and their debut album, just called “G. Love and Special Sauce” which came out in 1994 is a killer. I saw them a few times around them and they put on an amazing show. Their latest album, produced by Luther Dickinson, is called “Philadelphia Mississippi” and came out in ’22. Lately, Special Sauce has been doing some shows commemorating 30 years since their debut album came out.
Garrett and I had a great conversation, and I’m thrilled that he found his way back to his hotel that day! You can get all the latest info and upcoming tour dates over at www.philadelphonic.com - Enjoy my conversation with G. Love!
This season is brought to you by our sponsors Larivée Guitars and Fishman Amplification
You can join our Patreon here to get all episodes ad-free, as well as access to all early episodes
Your fearless host, Steve Dawson can be found at www.stevedawson.ca
Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts - it really helps get the show heard by more folks! Just Click Here, and scroll down a bit to leave a review. Thank you!