G. Love & Special Sauce - Coast to Coast Motel

Modern-day bluesman G. Love, known to more skeptical ears as 23-year-old blue-eyed devil Garrett Dutton, shone briefly as hip-hop's great white hope when he released a debut record that paired blues-based playing with vocals that approximated rap. Though he was initially grouped with acts like Beck and Soul Coughing--pale faces who flirted with hip-hop but stuck to rock esthetics--we know now that young Master Dutton has far less in common with those inventive postmodernists than he does with, say, Jamie Walters, the pretty-boy pop dullard of Beverly Hills 90210 fame.

Coast to Coast Motel, the singer/guitarist's second shot with his bass and drums ensemble Special Sauce, does not even grant us the minor pleasures of his debut's "blues rap" novelty. This time, Mr. G focuses primarily on the R&B sounds of New Orleans, where the band recorded the album. That G. Love counts John Hammond Jr. an inspiration is telling: What Coast to Coast Motel offers is bratty suburban recreations of Hammond's competent but uninspired blueblood appropriations of classic blues music. New Special Sauce tunes like "Kiss & Tell" and "Bye Bye Baby" are absolutely fine but inauthentic and unnecessary given the breadth of great blues already available to motivated listeners. And any college-educated kid, like Garrett, who insists on singing with the slurred drawl of elderly sharecroppers needs to be slapped silly. --Roni Sarig

Amazon.com

Madness!

Who the hell is Roni Sarig and what is his problem? G-love and Special Sauce are one of the few musical acts out there who don't pump out the same MTV garbage on a regualr basis. August 2, 2006

A strong showing

Man, what's gotten into Roni Sarig's (the caustic reviewer) drawers? He puts down G. Love and John Hammond, Jr. in the same review?

Doesn't the sharecropper remark seem a bit...I dunno...'holier-than-thou' at best and racist at worst?

Don't know what happened to Roni, but G.Love is still recording great music. Ditto John Hammond. February 24, 2006

More Folk Oriented, But Still Very Good

The droll humor and wistful breeziness flaunted on G's first release is transformed into a more subdued, folk-oriented follow up album. After first listen, I didn't think much of this release, but it grew on me in time. The singles Sweet Sugar Mama and Kiss and Tell are equally enticing, but other tracks like the optimistic Leaving the City, the dreary Sometimes, and the brilliant, big band foray of Bye Bye Baby are the best songs, making up the foundation of the record. Although it's quite disparate from the band's other releases, Coast to Coast Motel is nearly paramount in quality to G's other releases, and it will definately start to rub off on you after a few listens. July 30, 2003

From Joe Pops with Love, G. Love

Wow, this is a great album, I can't believe it got a negative review. "Small Fish" is da bomb. January 3, 2003

Just excellent music

I can't believe this album got a negative review. Neither can I believe G. Love is getting negative press in other reviews...

This is what this album has to offer: it's got its own unique, creative sound - as every G. Love album - and it will grow on you like pleasure. I've had this album for several years, and I still get so down into it every time I hear it.

If you like artists from all walks of music because they create their own vein of music without fitting in an easy box ( e.g. B. Harper, Morcheeba, Sublime, M. Ndegeacelo, J. Buckley, GURU, Albert King, the Beatles and M. Davis), this will undoubtedly satisfy you. It took a few listening to grow on me, as I had other G. Love albums which sound a bit rawer.

Discovering G. Love is one of those rare times when you think: damn, I found an incredible artist with a new sound. A sound that's not just new, but simply feels so good you can't quite believe it. Perhaps playing everyday since childhood and growing up in a musical environment helped, but this is someone with immense raw talent.

The sound bites help, but are not sufficent to get a real feel for this sound. Hey G. Love, may you keep putting out this quality and variety for many years! July 24, 2002

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