Off the Record: G. Love

Most people dismiss G. Love (Garrett Dutton III) as a backseat player in the whole Jack Johnson movement. What most people don't realize is that the Philly-bred troubadour was responsible for breaking Johnson in 1998, when his early hit "Rodeo Clowns" was featured on G. Love's Philadelphonic. From there, Johnson arguably evolved into this generation's Jimmy Buffett, while G. Love continued to navigate the seas of obscurity. There is no doubt that he has cashed in on Johnson's mainstream crossover, but G. Love still holds true to the cocky swagger that served him well as a street musician in Harvard Square in the early '90s.

G. Love relocated to Boston after dropping out of Skidmore College. He eventually met up with drummer Jeffrey "Houseman" Clemens and bassist Jim "Jimi Jazz" Prescott to form his band G. Love and Special Sauce, which has stuck together through endless touring over the past 15 years. The band's self-titled debut dropped in 1994 when G. Love was just a young 20-something, concerned more about the roaches in his apartment than about shaking up the blues with some nitty-gritty hip-hop. His early recordings were purposely sloppy, almost as if G. Love tossed all of his influences into a trash can and then proceeded to blindly pick out scraps from each for the other Special Sauce members to salvage. But G. Love has milked this front-porch style - the raspy vocal swells, haphazardly placed harmonica drags, and rickety guitar jaunts - and allows Houseman's classy shuffle and Jimi Jazz's elephant gait to tie up the loose ends. The brash romp "Cold Beverage," a tribute to all things frosty, helped to drag G. Love's rustic style out of Boston's dives directly into party rotation on campuses across the country. "Baby's Got Sauce" pays tribute to one of G. Love's blatant obsessions: women. But more specifically, it sheds an honest light on a dicey situation with the ladyfriend, only to come out with the feeling of "who gives a f-." Finally, "This Ain't Living" finds G. Love sleeping on the streets but still feeling alive, while "Blues Music" pays its respect to all of the pioneers who walked a similar path.

G. Love's later efforts have become cleaner as he has established himself as an efficient songwriter. Becoming a father and climbing above the poverty line may also have something to do with the exposure of his softer side. But the carefree, lemonade-sipping, trash-talking mentality that brought him to the scene in 1994 still resounds today, especially in the live setting; only now, his style can be further explored by far more mature hands.