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G. Love performs in The Current studio

G. Love performs in The Current studio.
G. Love performs in The Current studio.MPR photo/Nate Ryan
  Play Now [22:28]

by Barb Abney and G. Love

April 18, 2014

In town to play a show at First Avenue in Minneapolis, G. Love stopped in to The Current's studio to play a solo acoustic set and to talk to Barb Abney about his forthcoming album, Sugar.

Because Garrett (what the "G" stands for) has now worked in music for 20 years, he and Barb spend some time looking back over the arc of his career, including G. Love's reminiscences of the old Uptown Bar in Minneapolis and the fabled radio station REV 105. Garrett even reflects on his days starting off as a musician in Boston, where it was all he could do to scrape together enough busking money to buy some muffins at Au Bon Pain.

For the new record, G. Love and the reunited Special Sauce recorded at Bear Creek Studios in Seattle and at Brushfire Studios in Hollywood, Calif. It was at Brushfire that a lot of the magic happened, and G. Love says he and the band felt like they were capturing the sound of Chess, Stax and Blue Note Records — essentially, all the labels that influenced and inspired the band members to pursue music.

Listen to the complete interview to hear more about the new album, Sugar, about how touring in the early 1990s compares to touring in 2014, and about G. Love's new (and possibly inevitable?) product line: hot sauce.

Songs Performed


"Too Much Month"
"Bad Girl Baby Blues"
"Sugar"
All songs off G. Love and Special Sauce's forthcoming album, Sugar, which releases on April 22, 2014, on Republic Records.

Hosted by Barb Abney
Produced by Derrick Stevens
Engineered by Michael DeMark