Published in The Santa Barbara Sentinel
Garret Dutton, a.k.a. G. Love, has been touring for twenty years and with his fourteenth (!) now available, he’ll be stopping by Santa Barbara in February to spread the (G) love and then some.
The native Philadelphian trio – G. Love and Special Sauce – will bring their signature alternative blues and hip-hop to the SoHO stage on February 3rd.
I have a bit of a cold so I apologize if I sound funny. Speaking of, have you ever had to play when you were sick?
Oh yeah, it definitely comes with the territory.
I feel performing usually just makes you feel better.
There have been times where I’m like fuck, I don’t know how I’m going to do this and every time, the minute I get on stage, this inner happiness and euphoria comes over me.
I get really nervous before shows and when I get on stage, it releases and I get a big smile on my face and I’m just happy to be doing that.
Music’s kind of a healing factor.
Have you ever just completely zoned out during a show? Just lost in thought?
(Laughing) I mean yeah, that happens all the time, too.
And that’s a good thing because you zone out in a blissful way and you’re cruising automatically and totally in the moment of playing.
At the same time, part of becoming a great performer is finding the ability to be constantly present when you’re playing your music.
You genius-ly created special sauces, literally, (for people to slather on food). If you could only give one away to try, which one would it be and why?
We have three flavors, Original, Samball, and Lolo.
The original anyone can like but the Lolo is more exotic tasting, a Caribbean hot sauce.
I would probably go forward with that.
Let’s talk about the new album. It’s your fourteenth, correct?
Yeah, I’m kind of losing track at this point. But somewhere around there.
How does it differ from your previous albums?
This is our heaviest record in a lot of ways. It’s a real rock ‘n roll record for us. We found our type of rock ‘n roll after years and years of steeping the Delta Blues and kept pushing the sound, then ended up with our form of rock ‘n roll.
What advice would you give your younger self?
(Laughing) I mean, I would sit myself down for a long talk. I’ve definitely made a lot of mistakes over the years, luckily not to bury myself – though I probably tried a couple of times – would tell my younger self to really think about the greater opportunity in everything that I do.
If you liked this, you’d love this Q&A with Dolly Parton
