Ep. 165 - G. Love | Blues, Hip-Hop Roots Music & Songwriting Outside the Lines
Music Makers and Soul Shakers with Steve DawsonShow Notes
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 The show’s website can be found at www.makersandshakerspodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from Music Makers and Soul Shakers with Steve Dawson
Season 9 comes to a close and I wanted to wrap it up with a short episode and what’s to come, and take care of our incredible end-of-season giveaways.
Guitarist Andy Reiss joins me on the show today, the last full episode of Season 9! When I first moved to Nashville, I started going to see the Time Jumpers. They are an incredible band that plays western swing and classic country every Monday at 3rd & Lindsley. For quite a few years there, the band included Vince Gill, Paul Franklin, Ranger Doug, 3 incredible fiddle players, Dawn Sears on vocals, and Andy Reiss was always there, just calmly tackling every song, no matter how fast and crazy or slow and soulful. Usually playing elegant jazz/blues/bop licks on a Les Paul, or sometimes a 335. And while it was mind-bending to see everyone doing what they do, Andy was always a high point of any show for me. He’s still doing that gig, as he has for over 20 years now. Andy started out in San Francisco, and made his way to Nashville around 1980, where he got to watch and work with a number of the original Nashville A-Team. Folks like Pete Drake, Harold Bradley, Bob Moore, Ray Edenton, and Pig Robbins. People that I know of as legends - Andy was around them from day 1 after moving here. He spent a good deal of time on the road with artists like Reba McIntyre and Slim Whitman, and has played on hundreds of records for artists like Miranda Lambert, Willie Nelson, Kenny Rogers and Leon Russell. He is truly one of the great guitar players in town, and has a deep knowledge of music, guitars and history. I also get to enjoy him up close and personal, since he now plays in my band The Volcano Brothers as well! Be sure to go and see Andy any time you’re in Nashville.
Following the passing of blues legend John Hammond, we’re revisiting this conversation with him from the first season of Music Makers and Soul Shakers, with the addition of a later conversation in which John recounts meeting Bo Diddley. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
British pedal steel guitar legend BJ Cole joins me on the show today. BJ is a masterful steel player - very inventive and textural but with incredible chops and skills as well. He’s amassed an incredible body of solo work over the years, but has also been the top call steel session player in the UK for decades. He had a very solitary musical start, but got into country bands in England and eventually started gigging and playing sessions. Things changed for BJ when he got called to play steel on Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” in 1971. He laid down some very tasty and memorable steel parts on that hit, and the phone started ringing big time. BJ has played on records and toured with an incredible array of artists like Joan Armatrading, Marc Bolan, KD Lang, Beck, Bjork, Sting, John Cale, Brian Eno and many more. He’s also always written and recorded his own music and collaborations, which have been all over the place musically and are a great way to delve into his musical brain. There’s a new collab with cellist Emily Burridge - cello and steel duets that’s really cool, and his solo albums like Transparent Music, The New Hovering Dog, Trouble in Paradise - all great albums well worth checking out. We get into all it, plus some seriously nerdy pedal steel talk. You can keep up to date on BJ’s latest projects and tours at bjcole.co.uk Enjoy my conversation with BJ Cole!
This is Part 2 of my conversation with Brent Maher - have a listen to Part 1 from last week first and then dig in!