And now for something completely different…
The Infamous Stringdusters have never been afraid to take their music in new directions, or to apply their forward-looking grass to different styles. So you may not be shocked to learn that their latest collaboration is with rapper G. Love (Garrett Dutton) on his hit with Special Sauce, Cold Beverage. Love’s original track had been made in 1994 and saw success in the alternative rap market, and he says he was immediately up for working with the Stringdusters.
“Andy Falco and I met and jammed at the Grey Horse Tavern a couple years back with Ron Artis during my BeachSide Blues tour. We’ve kept in touch since then, and when Andy suggested a collaboration with The Stringdusters I was over the moon. I was thinking either let’s cook something up from scratch or do a bonafide hit down home style. We decided to rock the Special Sauce hit Cold Beverage which has become one heck of a great drinking song over the years. I went down to Philly the day before Halloween as everybody was off before the Stringdusters’ Halloween show at the TLA, so we had some studio time in Germantown (where I went to high school). We circled up and ran the song acoustic til we had a killer arrangement. We cut it live and nailed it in the first couple takes and added a few harmony vocal overdubs.The next night I sat in at the Stringdusters show and we debuted the collaboration to a full house. It was such a pleasure to get to work with these amazing musicians and I look forward to the jams to come.”
The ‘Dusters released this sneak preview video last week with a taste of the latest collab from December 2019.
Stringdusters guitarist Andy Falco shared a bit about how this came about.
“I met G. Love a few years ago at my favorite local venue here on Long Island called Grey Horse Tavern. Last fall [the band] wanted to head into the studio to record collaborations, so I reached out to G. and he was down. The Stringdusters were due in Philly for our annual Halloween show (where G. is originally from) and coincidentally he was going to be in town at the same time. We booked some time at Rittenhouse Soundworks which has a very cool old warehouse-looking live room, and tracked a bluegrass version of G. Love’s hit, Cold Beverage. We did it live (aside from a few background vocals), and had such a blast hanging and making music with G, who is such a seasoned pro. It was really a special day in Philadelphia. [We] hope the fun we were having in the studio comes through in the track, enjoy!”
The finished track is now available wherever you stream or download music online.
