it wasn't so much massive popularity that led to artistic freedom, but
changes in the music business. Several years ago, Love signed to
Brushfire Records, a label founded by singer Jack Johnson. Being on a
small label meant a little more creative elbow room. After two albums
for Brushfire that focused on a bigger production, Love was ready for
something else.
“The last album” — 2008's “Superhero Brother” —
“was hip-hop stewed in some blues and rock ‘n' roll,” he said. “This
time I wanted to take it back to the stuff that made me want to step
into hip-hop, get into music to begin with.”
When Love discovered
the blues, he said he “isolated himself in that. There's so much
romance. It's real and raw. But when I found that other people were
doing the blues, I figured I had to do something different.”
That
something different came from his native environment. Just as the
original bluesmen were shaped by the culture of the Mississippi Delta,
Love was molded by the city of Philadelphia. Growing up in Philly in the
1980s and early '90s, Love was surrounded by hip-hop. One day, in his
back yard, strumming his guitar, a rhythm came out that crossed the
lines between blues and hip-hop.
“I made a melting pot of those two cultures, and that became that G. Love sound,” he said.
Those
looking for that G. Love/rag-mop sound won't find it on “Fixin to Die.”
What they will find, though, is not really reminiscent of those earlier
roots album by Love, which he refers to as “bootlegs.” The album,
produced by Scott and Seth Avett, of the folk-rock group the Avett
Brothers, was made quickly, but carefully.
“Those were projects I
did back in the day when I could do 200 shows a year, get off the road,
spend five days in the studio, and do an album the record label didn't
want me to do in the first place,” Love said of the earlier roots
records. “This one is a complete record. The bootlegs were an outlet.
They were like a demo — if I ever found those reels again, I'd want to
change them.”
It might turn out that “Fixin to Die” represents
not just a chance to release his inner bluesman for a spell, but becomes
the next evolutionary phase in the G. Love continuum. Love said that he
wants his next record to be produced by either Jack White, of the White
Stripes, or the Black Keys — both known to favor gritty, blues-based
sounds.
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