G. Love and Special Sauce - "Stepping Stones," Yeah, It's That EasyG. Love peaked early in his career. Two songs of his persist in popularity, played regularly at frat parties and keggers across the country, they are both standards in the drunken hook-up hymnal. "Cold Beverage" and "Baby's Got Sauce" from his first album G. Love and Special Sauce are still stand-by's for Delta-Chi's looking to get their white boy blooz on. G. Love, (also known as Garrett Dutton) with his Presley-esque coiffure and his absurd, over-the-top, urbanized Philly patois, never quite achieved the level of sales success these first two singles hinted at. The highly derivative blues and R&B he played became much more marketable when performed by an actual black man (Ben Harper) or by a more neutral hippy-dippy white voice (Jack Johson). Nevertheless, G. Love was a fearless dude when it came to wearing his tastes and influences on his sleeve. His 1997 release Yeah, It's That Easy struggled to encompass all of the myriad musical influences he wanted to acknowledge, a symptom that verged into borderline-schizophrenia on later records. However, on a few tracks G. Love absolutely hits his mark hearkening back to the best of '60s Philly soul while adding a modern twist. This is how all high school dances would sound if Jim Crow had never happened.
Grant Lee Phillips - "Wish I Knew," Virginia Creeper
*Warning - I'm going to use the term alt.country a lot here. It's just easier than anything else and people kind of know what it means, I'll throw in a few synonyms and neologisms for fun, too.
It's hard to imagine a time when Jeff Tweedy wasn't the foremost practitioner of bent Americana. After Uncle Tupelo broke apart, Farrar and Tweedy quickly formed new outfits, but except for the hit single "Drown," neither Wilco or Son Volt seemed like they would set the alt.country world on fire in the way they did with tunes like "Whiskey Bottle" and "Graveyard Shift." A.M. was good, Trace was good, but I wasn't sure they were great. (In retrospect both these records are absolutely perfect middle steps in the careers of two of the best songwriters of the last twenty-five years.) Late 1993 into 1994 it wasn't clear if the No Depression-era of country-influenced rock was going to continue.
In walks Grant-Lee Buffalo and alt.country became something altogether different. GLB continued, where Tupelo had begun, re-inventing what American rock and roll sounded like. But this re-invention of country bore signs of influence more far-flung than the Carter Family and Nashville Skyline Dylan. There were hints of 80's New Wave mixed with the banjoes and dobros. It had the fuzzy impertinence of Neil Young with the queer take on rock and roll that made R.E.M. so intriguing. In fact, their first record was called Fuzzy. And within a year of that album, they released Mighty Joe Moon. They toured with Pearl Jam when nobody was bigger than Pearl Jam.
All of this had to do with Grant-Lee Phillips' songwriting and his vocals. His tone was precise and he commanded a perfect Nashville vibrato, but he was able to be vocally eccentric and odd when the moment called for it.
In 1996 Wilco released Being There and Beck released Odelay and alt.country and cow.hop's kings were crowned. By 1999 Grant-Lee Buffalo had disbanded and Phillips was playing and recording as a solo artist, as he has been now for the last decade. And he is still damn good at it. Perhaps he's not the greatest alt.country figure of our time, but he was very important for a moment. And his albums from the 2000's have some real gems. Great American songwriter and definitely underrated.
Wish I Knew - Grant Lee Philli...
As a post script, I wish to acknowledge and thank any of yous who are "following" this blog. I didn't even know that function existed until a month ago. So, thanks. You are very kind.
As a post script, I wish to acknowledge and thank any of yous who are "following" this blog. I didn't even know that function existed until a month ago. So, thanks. You are very kind.
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