Live Tunes Tuesday - G. Love at the Handlebar!


G. Love at the Handlebar
My first experience with G. Love was the song ‘Shootin’ Hoops’ off of their self-titled 1994 second album, G. Love and Special Sauce. A fantastic ode to the bravado of a playground basketball player, ‘Shootin’ Hoops’ is my favorite song on the album, but all the songs are great. If I’m not completely mistaken, and I may be, the singles "The Things That I Used to Do", "Baby's Got Sauce" and "Cold Beverage" got some airtime.

G. Love’s latest effort, Fixin’ to Die, produced by the Avett Brothers, is a bit of departure from G. Love’s blues-influence hip-hop, but if you’re a fan of Americana, G. Love, the blues, or all three, you should pick it up. There’s a lot of catchy tunes on here, my personal favorites being the blues standard “Fixin to Die”, awesome, “Milk and Sugar”, a fantastic paen to coffee, and “Walk On”.

Bassist Timo Shanko
Timo Shanko, the G. Love bassist clowned around nearly the entire show, making faces, playing the bass like a guitar, and pretending like he was going to drop his instrument. Sometimes it was a bit over-the-top, but in general it was amusing and endearing. Jeffrey Clemens was great, and pounded out some great solos.

Drummer Jeffrey Clemens
I’d be remiss if didn’t mention Kristy Lee in this review.  She opened for the band, and she was fabulous.  I was very disappointed when I went to buy her album after the show, but she’d already packed up her merch booth. I ran into her getting oFf the bus, said she was fantastic, and mentioned I’d like to buy her album, but sadly I didn’t have any cash. You can check out one of the songs I liked on youtube, "Hey Crazy" (language warning), but to be honest it doesn’t do her justice. She was fantastic, and played some great music. It's great to run into new artists when going to see an old favorite.

Kristy Lee
So it really boils down to you needing to go buy at least one G. Love album, and if G. Love is playing in your area, definitely shell out the cash, he’s worth it. Check out G. Love on tour here.

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