Welcome back to another Live Music Friday here at Burgoblog.com. For today’s post, I thought we would get a little motown. A little funky. A little bluesy. A little… well… everything, with a show from G Love & Special Sauce.
One of my favourite live shows of 2008 so far has been a night spent with G Love & Special Sauce at the Tivoli. My first time seeing G Love, he was everything I had hoped for. Magnetic, playful, soulful and plain ol’ fun, it was a great night. After hoping to see him for over a decade, you might have thought the event itself could easily have been an anti-climax… in reality, however, it was anything but.
G Love performing live at The Tivoli
G Love really is, to me, an old-school musician. As I said in my last entry:
G Love is, to me, one of the most complete musicians of my era. While his brand of blues and funk sometimes seems interminable to those who need their songs packaged into 3:30 min format, to me G Love hearkens back to a time when a blues man knew what he was talking about. When a blues man paid his respects to those who came before him, but produced more than homage; an innovator. And someone slightly out of step with time. All this may not seem obvious when seeing G Love from the outside; after all, he’s an easy-going guy, who’s songs often deal with frivolous topics. But I think underneath that there’s a wealth of knowledge and experience. In short, a hip, hip cat. And that’s G Love to a tee.
And really, that “completeness” is shown off in the set I’ve decided to post today, which showcases G Love & Special Sauce performing live at the Belly-Up Tavern in Solana Beach, California, in 2006. As Garrett says in the set, when introducing the tune “Walk On”:
“Sometimes I feel like a little city, and sometimes I feel a little country… And right now, I’m feeling a little country”.
And ultimately, that statement exemplifies this show; there’s some rock, a whole lot of blues and soul, a pinch of reggae, some hip hop, and some folk thrown in for good measure with the Bob Dylan cover of “The Times They Are A-Changin’”.
In short: It’s music. So enjoy.
Listen. Love. Support.
G Love & Special Sauce, live at the Belly-Up Tavern, 1/18/2006 (Set 1)
1.) Rapping Beats
2.) Don’t Drop It
3.) Ain’t No Turning Back
4.) Let’s Make Love Tonight
5.) Can’t Go Back To Jersey
6.) Baby’s Got Sauce
7.) This Ain’t Livin’
8.) Steppin’ Stone
9.) I-76
G Love & Special Sauce, live at the Belly-Up Tavern, 1/18/2006 (Set 2)
10.) Times They Are A-Changing
11.) Willow Tree
12.) Rainbow
13.) Walk On
14.) Chuck Dub
15.) Give It To You (Chuck Dub)
16.) Booty Call
17.) Cold Beverages (Gold Digger)
18.) Drums (Cold Beverages)
set. It truly is the quintessential Howie. Here’s actually a taster, that I see someone has uploaded to Youtube. Best watch this fast, as I doubt they had permission to upload this from that DVD.
