Features

G. Love: A Case of the Blues

Photo by Noah Abrams

“Some of those songs were written in high school,” reveals Dutton. “If a song can survive so many years and still be something I like to play, that, to me, says it’s a pretty great song.”

He plays two songs from his teenage years on the album—“Get Going” and “Walk On” —which are simple and straightforward explorations of highway blues. While most of the new record is straightforward roots music, there are hints of Dutton’s trademark delivery, which is nestled somewhere between the easy flow of Jack Johnson and the lyrical jog of hip-hop.

In fact, the most melodically compelling of the new songs is also the sore thumb of the group. The sunny “Just Fine” reveals Dutton’s passion for mashing hip-hop with the blues. And why not throw it in there? It’s a style that has served him well, from the mid-to-late-‘90s hits “Cold Beverage” and “Stepping Stones” to his transition into the adult alternative world which coincided with “Rodeo Clowns,” the Jack Johnson penned track G. Love recorded and broke in 1999 on Philadelphonic.

If the argument has been made that G. Love broke Jack Johnson’s career wide open, then it’s also safe to say that Johnson salvaged G. Love’s career.

“Thank god for me being friends with people in high places,” Dutton says seriously f his friend Johnson who has headlined Coachella, sold out America’s biggest amphitheaters and made the Curious George soundtrack a platinum seller.

But what about any lingering jealousy?

“It was only frustrating that very first year,” Dutton confirms. “We’d put out the record with [Johnson’s track], and that put him out there and had him blowing up in California.”

At that time, manager JP Plunier signed Johnson to his Enjoy label (now called Everfine) and put him on a tour with one of his management clients, Ben Harper. Dutton didn’t have the best relationship with Plunier and he was also dealing with drama involving his longtime backing band, Special Sauce. The issue was that the band didn’t play on “Rodeo Clowns” but the label still wanted them to be in the music video. The band denied the label’s request, no one ever made the video and Philadelphonic never met sales expectations (though the album remains the band’s biggest seller with nearly 300,000 in sales).

“We didn’t capitalize on trying to manage Jack and putting his records out,” Dutton says. “[Jack Johnson manager Emmett Malloy and JP] did and they succeeded. There was a minute where I was ticked off. My shit was going downhill. And I felt like my luck was gone. Jack was taking off like he was a rocket ship and [Brushfire Records] wrote their own deal with the [Universal Records]. They got the craziest deal ever, got super-paid, made huge records and their touring took off. And everything’s been sold out since then.”

When Universal dropped G. Love, Johnson stepped in and signed him to Brushfire. And when G. Love didn’t have a summer 2010 tour, Johnson stepped in again.

“He’s never turned his back on anybody who’s made music with him,” Dutton says. “I see our relationship continuing forever. As long as those guys have the energy to put out records, I feel comfortable with them.”

Fixin’ to Die actually grew out of Dutton’s conversations with Johnson and Brushfire co-owner Malloy.

“Everybody was listening to the songs I’d been working on,” says Dutton, “and they told me, ‘This isn’t going to hit. We need you to do something different. If you want to make a blues record, why are you wasting your time?’”