February 28, 2008 issue
G. Love & Special Sauce Bring Hip-Hop Blues to Boone March 4
Singer-Songwriter Tristan Prettyman To Open 
Story by David Brewer
When the music of G. Love & Special Sauce hit the airwaves in 1994, the funky fresh sound that drew as much from Southern juke joints as it did from urban street corners was unlike anything audiences had heard. The band enjoyed success and popularity thanks in part to airplay on MTV and exposure through the popular H.O.R.D.E. Tour.
For more than a decade and a half, Garrett Dutton, a.k.a. G. Love, has been making audiences around the world boogie down to his raw roots hybrid of jazzy blues, sloppy funk grooves and Beastie-like rhymes. On Tuesday, March 4, G. Love & Special Sauce will perform at Legends. The show, which will also feature an opening performance by singer-songwriter Tristan Prettyman, will start at 9:00 p.m.
In addition to G. Love on vocals, harmonica and guitar, the band features longtime members Jimi "Jazz" Prescott on bass and Jeffrey "Thunderhouse" Clemens on drums and percussion. The pair have been performing as Special Sauce since the band’s early days in Boston.
It may sound far-fetched to combine the music of Run DMC, Eric B & Rakim and De La Soul and the acoustic blues of players like Lightnin’ Hopkins, Robert Johnson and Big Bill Broonzy, but that’s precisely what G. Love did as a teenager in Philadelphia. Combining those sounds with his love of folk rock brought about what G. Love referred to in an interview posted on his website as a “musical epiphany.”
Since then, G. Love & Special Sauce have recorded seven full-length discs, the latest being their 2006 effort entitled Lemonade. The disc is a diverse, guest-laden record that features the talents of such contemporaries as Ben Harper, Donovan Frankenreiter, Jasper, Dave Hidalgo (Los Lobos), Blackalicious, Marc Broussard, Tristan Prettyman and Jack Johnson. According to a representative, the band will release a new disc this summer tentatively title Super Hero Brother.
With her dusky, carefree alto providing the perfect instrument to tell her acoustic guitar-based stories, Tristan Prettyman is a young and talented California surf bum coming into her own following the release of her debut Twentythree. With a hint of jazz and not a small amount of influence from fellow surfer Jack Johnson, Prettyman’s songs are instantly likeable and unassuming grooves waiting to be discovered.
For more info on the show, click to www.apps.appstate.edu.
Want To Go?
Date: Tuesday, March 4
Time: 9:00 p.m.
Location: Legends
Cost: $15 for students in advance/$20 for all others
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