Artist of the Week: G. Love & Special Sauce

This week WERS is featuring Philadelphia native hip-hop band G. Love & Special Sauce as our Artist of the Week. The group formed when frontman Garrett Dutton (known as G. Love) was performing in a Boston bar. It was there where he met band mate Jeffrey Clemens. The two began working as a duo and were later joined by Jim Prescott and the trio became the house band at The Plough and Stars in Cambridge. G. Love & Special Sauce released their first self-titled album under Okeh Records and their single “Cold Beverage” nearly went gold after gaining mass exposure through MTV.

Their sophomore released came in 1995 entitled Coast to Coast Motel. While it was not as sell as well as the first, it received high critical acclaim. Due to financial strain the future of the band was in jeopardy after the album’s release tour and a hiatus was initiated. Two years later the trio reconciled and put out a third album, Yeah, It’s That Easy.

It wasn’t until their fourth album, Philadelphonic, in 1999 that the band returned to their roots in Philadelphia. As the band progressed the showed a wide range of influences as they incorporate various elements of hip-hop, funk, psychedelica, blues and soul into their sound. After two more albums a change in line-up occurred, no longer including Prescott on bass. Mark Boyce and Timo Shanko joined in turn and G. Love & Special Sauce

By Jeeyoon Kim

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