G. Love - Lemonade

"I'm the G." An anonymous early morning street dancer on Market Street in San Francisco would get in the groove with a tape of something called, I think, "I'm the G." Maybe he was? In any case, this ran through my head, until it was ousted somehow. Now, thanks to G. Love and Special Sauce--though they're no longer called that--and the former's latest solo outing, Lemonade, it's back. There are guests galore, some labelmates such as Jack Johnson; others that are just hot players such as Donavon Frankenreiter and David Hidalgo of Los Lobos. Not to forget the wonderfully named Lateef The Truth Speaker, Blackalicious, Ben Harper and Tristan Prettyman. Thing is, none of the guests is an intrusion and each has something to give to the mix. On "Can't Go Back To Jersey" Mark Boyce plays B3 organ then adds wurlitzer piano to several other cuts. There's rap on "Jersey," and the "Lemonade" ending chorus on "Banger," from Blackalicious and Lateef The Truth Speaker, dare I say it, is almost scat. In fact, when I first heard G. Love a few years ago, I probably dismissed him in a wave of ignorance on my part. It's enough to wean me of my very long mourning for the Human Boombox, late of the Fat Boys, one of whom wasn't even Fat. I should know by now that something I don't like at first will come back to haunt me, obsessively, in the future. Works for me. Love's 12-string, on "Still Hangin'," a solo outing, puts him in that rare pantheon of such players as Roger McGuinn and Mike Wilhelm. And his harmonica work, singing, songwriting and, even the video of "Love," herein, are very big plus points too. I just adore people who can do a lot of different things and seem to know they did NOT invent the wheel. But the song, "Love," is on his last album, The Hustle. Who does he think he is--Elvis Costello? Some people, given lemons, make lemonade. Others make a record as Black-Rappi-StringBassi-HandClappi-Licious as this one. So, if I'm not the G and that Market Street breaker is not the G, now we all know who is. It's G., Love! [www.brushfirerecords.com]