I was given the pleasure of having a telephone conversation with G. Love, front man for the band G. Love & Special Sauce, about his up and coming First Annual Cape Cod Roots & Blues Festival that will be held at Nauset Beach in Orleans, MA., on September 15th, 2018 from noon to 6pm.
Mitchydread: You yourself have been doing festivals for a long time, about 25 years now, and I wanted to know what inspired you to want to put on your own festival?
G Love: It’s been a long-time dream of mine to be able to curate a festival. Festivals are great because its where musicians get to connect with other musicians. Through the festivals, destination concerts and musical cruises we do, I’ve met a lot of amazingly talented musicians over the years, they’ve become some of my best friends, and we don’t get to see each other a lot over the years, every so often you get to connect and hang with your peers. It’s been a dream of mine to bring something like that together and get all my peeps that I love to connect with.
MD: Can you tell us a little about this year’s lineup?
GL: A big thing we like to do is to bring in up and coming bands. It’s how a lot of young bands get their start. We got Ripe, Out of Boston, one of the younger bands on the bill; these guys are just blowing up right now and they’re taking the world by storm one city at a time. We got Ron Artis, whom I’ve gotten to know playing our annual acoustic concerts out in Hawaii. I wanted to get another bigger, more established act as well, so when I asked Citizen Cope if he would come out, he said “Yeah!, I’ll come!”. People just go crazy for Cope, they have an exceptional fan base. For the last several years, I have been doing my acoustic Beachside blues tour, but it’s probably been twenty plus years since I’ve had G Love and Special Sauce together as one band on Cape Cod, so I’m super excited about that. And in future years we look forward to adding more local talent as well.
MD: Born in Philly, but rooting your music career here in Boston, what made you chose Cape Cod as the location for this festival?
GL: I was born in Philly but My folks later got a place in Avalon on the jersey Shore, a nice little surf town, about 8 years ago they sprung on us that they were moving to cape cod. we were sad to leave the place where I’d grown up and spent so much time with my friends, it was like closing a chapter in our family’s geographical history. I myself have been living in Boston for 14 years, with my older son, but after the first summer we spent on the cape in Orleans with my parents we fell in love with the outer beach and the people here, we made some of the best friends of our lives, its been wonderful to be embraced by the community, and we really fell in love with it. We just got our own place in Orleans last year and will be moving out here full time once my oldest son graduates. Its so beautiful, the people, the food, the surf, the fishing, the pristine land, its so special to us, we never want to leave. For the first time in my life, its hard for me to go on the road. There’s so much love for live music out on the Cape, there are great live music supporters out here, but there are no festivals!
MD: Should we expect this to be an ongoing festival?
GL: It’s a great way to continue to give back to the Cape community and get my friends out here to play. Having these incredible musically talented friends that I can call upon such as Jack Johnson, Slightly Stoopid and other amazing musicians, and they all want to come play on the Cape. And after having so much support from the community, and having the police and fire chiefs on board, the whole town has welcomed our idea with open arms. We want people to come from all around the world, but its important to us that we also keep it local, that you’re going to look around and see people you know.
MD: How important was it to you in planning this festival that it be family friendly?
GL: along the rock and roll road suddenly you wake up and you have two kids and a wife, were still out rock’n and roll’n but for us family comes first. All of our friends have kids, and our fan base, we’ve been doing this for 25 years and a lot of our fans now have kids themselves. A lot of the clubs we play are 21 and older, and this is just a great way to be able to make it a family friendly thing, its great when kids get to make it out to the show. Kids under 13 are $6, and a portion of all ticket sales goes to help the Friends of Nauset Beach.
MD: what can festival goers expect other than the music?
GL: There’s four resident food trucks that are always down at Nauset beach, and the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy will be down there too doing some educational outreach about the Great White population around the Cape. A lot of great community building.
With the CCR&B Fest fast approaching in less than a month’s time, be sure to lock down your tickets and secure your spot for this one-of-a kind festival, right here in our very own back yard. After talking with G Love, you can clearly hear how excited and passionate he is about his first festival. Not only is G Love bringing amazing music to the Cape, but he’s also giving back to the community at the same time.
You can purchase tickets before they sell out at www.capecodrootsandbluesfestival.com; and be sure to follow them on all their social media platforms for up to date information about the festival (IG/Twitter – @ccrbfest and FB – Cape Cod Roots and Blues Festival).
Also, for a more intimate setting you can purchase V.I.P. tickets which will give you access to a show with G Love the night before at Hog Island Beer Co,
Mitchydread
Media Correspondent
Dance Your Face Off
www.friendsofnausetbeach.org