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John Hammond’s new album, Push Comes to Shove, is out now on Back Porch Records At the North Star Bar outside of Philadelphia, circa 1990, a 17-year-old Garrett Dutton was turned away at the door—too young to see his idol, John Hammond, play that night.
"He’d come to see our show with his girlfriend and he was too young to get in," explains Hammond today.

"So he decided to wait around until a couple that looked old enough to be his parents walked in. It turned out to be me and [my wife] Marla. So that’s how it all began.

"
Fast forward nearly two decades, and that young man has a musical career of his own: Garrett Dutton is now best known as folk-rapper G. Love, of G. Love and Special Sauce, a band that has recorded seven albums and produced such hits as "Cold Beverage.

" And now, perhaps as a form of repayment to his boyhood idol, Dutton has also produced Hammond’s new album, Push Comes to Shove (Back Porch).
"Marla, who’s my partner in crime, suggested G. Love [after] the label [proposed] someone else who we weren’t really thrilled with," explains Hammond.

"It worked out really well."
Blues purists, a notoriously intolerant lot who vilified the likes of Muddy Waters for transitioning from acoustic blues to electric blues, will undoubtedly be displeased with this development, a fact to which Hammond alluded in a recent interview with Vintage Guitar magazine. "[G.

Love and I] toured together about 10 years ago," explained Hammond. "His audience hated me, and my audience hated him."
Then again, Hammond has always followed his own muse.

While most of today’s blues music is either watered-down, weekend warrior-played blues-rock or disemboweled MOR far from its Mississippi Delta roots, John Hammond is that rare traditionalist who still rankles some of the genre’s diehards. Not surprisingly, Hammond is unapologetic for the decisions he has made, but expects his co-workers to understand.
"All of my projects have been my own design and thoughts," he says.

"Everyone I’ve worked with has enough respect for me to let me do what I have to do."
The song most likely to provoke discussion on the new album is "I’m Tore Down," a Sonny Thompson classic previously recorded by Hammond for 1969’s Southern Fried. On this most recent version, Hammond’s growled vocals, crisp riffs and dirty-sounding harp are amended by the slightest hint of a hip-hop beat and some rapping woven in by Dutton.

"‘Tore Down’ had [G. Love’s] hip-hop lines in there, and this whole other direction was something we just jumped all over," says Hammond.
Also recorded live during a quick nine-day stretch was an eclectic mix of songs by Junior Wells, Little Walter, Tom Waits and Dion—a heady brew, to be sure, but one Hammond was able to handle, as he’s been covering the songs of others almost exclusively his entire career.

However, Hammond stretched himself considerably this time around, penning five songs himself—an impressive feat, considering that he wrote his first song a mere four years ago.
"Marla suggested I write a song to include on [my 2003 album] Ready for Love. I was very reluctant, [but] it worked out for me," recalls Hammond.

"This one, I went nuts and wrote five for it. I’m beginning to find my own voice in the songs."
Intriguing and well-traveled are just a couple of adjectives that can be used to describe this 64-year-old troubadour.

The namesake son of iconic producer John Hammond got bit by the music bug early, going to see Big Bill Broonzy perform at Washington Square Church in Greenwich Village at the tender age of 7. However, it would be another 11 years—at the age of 18—that he first picked up the guitar.
"I began my career in Los Angeles in ’62 playing all kinds of clubs out there: the Ash Grove, the Insomniac, the Cat’s Pajamas," reminisces Hammond.

"I played all these shows out there then I got serious—19 and ready for anything."
And even though he’s pushed the boundaries of his chosen genre, sometimes angering its orthodoxy, John Hammond is more than happy to adhere to the intrinsic spirit of the blues.
"Early on in my career I got to work with a lot of these guys who were rediscovered in the early ’60s—Son House, Bukka White, Skip James—the list just goes on," says Hammond.

"It’s that kind of importance with the sense of tradition where you become part of something that is way bigger than you. It’s very dynamic."
John Hammond will be appearing on March 21 at The Brokerage Comedy Club, 2797 Merrick Rd.

, Bellmore. Call 516-785-8655 for more information.
Out of the 31 albums John Hammond has recorded, these are four he considers crucial.

John Hammond (Vanguard) [1962] "It was a record that established me as an artist and led to a lot of other great recordings for me over the years."
So Many Roads (Vanguard) [1965] "That brought together friends of mine and contemporaries including The Band, Mike Bloomfield and Charlie Musselwhite. It started a dynamic that expanded for me to play with other artists.

"
Original Soundtrack—Little Big Man (Columbia) [1971] "It was mind-opening and terrific. It was something that established me on another level."
Wicked Grin (Virgin) [2001] "I never thought in my wildest dreams that I’d record 12 Tom Waits songs.

I’d say 90 percent of the songs I’d never heard before so I just did them my way and it came off amazing.