Thinking back to my days as a Source intern, several years ago now, one of my duties was to do the Cold Call section of the paper. I went out and asked people on the street the question of the week. Once, I asked which "Where are they now?" classic rock band would you like to see at The Amphitheater. No one really had an answer, but just about everyone I talked to wished Jack Johnson would come back. No, he's not coming back, as far as we know, but G. Love and Special Sauce, who toured with him back in 2004, is.
If you were lucky enough to be present at that show way back when, then you already know a thing or two about G. Love aka Garrett Dutton, and his band better known as Special Sauce. And we all know special sauce makes everything better - hamburgers for instance and of course alternative hip-hop/blues from Philadelphia. Now, they call the music G. Love & Special Sauce turns out blues influenced hip-hop, but really it's more difficult to label than that.
G. Love has been playing the guitar since he was an eight-year-old. He also rocks the harmonica, and wrote his first song as a freshman in high school. The rootsy-soul rapping rocker dropped out of college and moved to Boston, where he met drummer Jeffery Clemens. The band released their self-titled debut in 1994 and it went gold on the strength of the single "Cold Beverage." The band has now released ten albums to date and is currently signed to Jack Johnson's Brushfire Records.
Superhero Brother, the band's most recent release, debuted before the raspy singer went in for vocal chord surgery. Now he's back and says his voice is stronger and better than ever. If that's the case, next time we ask who you want to come to Bend everyone is going to be chanting G. Love & Special Sauce and asking Jack who?
G. Love & Special Sauce
9pm Thursday, Sept 3. Midtown Ballroom, 52 NW Greenwood Ave. $20/adv, $23/door
