G. Love & Special Sauce

A staple on the US college music circuit in the 1990s, Garrett 'G. Love' Dutton and his trio Special Sauce pioneered a blend of blues, folk and hip hop that earned them heavy rotation on MTV. Fast forward 15 years or so, and G. Love has been taking time off from his regular band to indulge his roots side, teaming up with North Carolina folksters The Avett Brothers on this year's well received Fixin' to Die album. That was just a temporary arrangement, however: he was back with the Sauce at Fuji Rock Festival in July, where they played on the main stage, and is now returning to Japan for the band's first headlining tour in three years.