Blues Traveler

Blues Traveler
Blues Traveler performing in 2012
Background information
Also known as	The Establishment The Establishment Blues Band The Black Cat Jam
Origin	Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.
Genres	Blues rock folk rock alternative rock southern rock jam band
Years active	1987–present
Labels	A&M Sanctuary 429 UD Factory
Members	John Popper Chan Kinchla Brendan Hill Tad Kinchla Ben Wilson
Past members	Bobby Sheehan
Website	bluestraveler.com

Blues Traveler is an American rock band that formed in Princeton, New Jersey in 1987. They are known for their extensive use of segues in live performances, and could be considered a key part of the re-emerging jam band scene of the 1990s, spearheading the H.O.R.D.E. touring music festival.

The group comprises singer and harmonica player John Popper, guitarist Chan Kinchla, drummer Brendan Hill, bassist Tad Kinchla, and keyboardist Ben Wilson. Tad Kinchla and Ben Wilson joined the band following the death of original bassist Bobby Sheehan in 1999.

The general public is most familiar with the group from their hit singles "

Sheehan's death and Popper's struggle with obesity put a damper on the group's mainstream success, and A&M dropped the band in 2002. In the years following, the band has attempted to work with a number of independent labels and record producers.

Blues Traveler's latest album, Traveler's Blues, was released in July 2021, and was nominated by The Recording Academy for Best Traditional Blues album in the 2022 Grammy Awards.

History

Formation

The genesis of Blues Traveler was as a

The group added guitarist and football player Chan Kinchla. Although he was a promising athlete, Kinchla decided to commit to playing music instead after a knee injury. Popper met bassist Bobby Sheehan and the two became good friends, with Sheehan becoming the new bass player for Blues Band in 1987.^[1]

The quartet held a basement jam session (later christened The Black Cat Jam) which spawned the core grooves for several songs on their first album. A black cat happened to be nearby, and the group took this as a sign and adopted the Black Cat as their mascot figure.

The group changed their name to Blues Traveler, taking the latter part from the name of the primary demon in the film Ghostbusters, Gozer the Traveler.^[1]

Early years

After graduating from

The group shared an apartment on Bergen Street[3] in Brooklyn, New York, along with their high school friend, singer Chris Barron.^[2][6] A second band that Popper and Hill founded, called The Trucking Company, soon became The Spin Doctors with Barron as their frontman.^[2] The two groups would often share the stage, playing non-stop concerts of multiple sets.^[5] Their first show together was at a Columbia University fraternity party. During this time, Blues Traveler acquired a devout follower, Gina-Z (subject of the band's song "Gina") who first became an unofficial "band mom" and later a tour manager, and is involved with the group's business to the present day.^[7]

At one New York show they were discovered by an A&M Records talent scout, Patrick Clifford, and the band signed their first recording contract. By 1990 all members had dropped out of college classes.^[6] The group also attracted the attention of David Graham, son of the world-famous concert promoter Bill Graham, and David Graham became the group's manager. Blues Traveler then started a relentless touring schedule, expanding their reach up and down the east coast.

First albums

Blues Traveler released their self-titled debut album in 1990,^[8] with the song "But Anyway" getting airplay on college radio stations. The album included Joan Osborne on backing vocals on two tracks.

A second album, Travelers and Thieves, followed in 1991.^[9] Upon Bill Graham's death that year, they released a live EP, On Tour Forever,^[8] as a tribute to Graham, which featured guitarist Carlos Santana.

Around this time, the mainstream national audience was exposed to Blues Traveler by television host David Letterman,^[8] who has introduced them as "[his] favorite band". The band has since made more appearances on The Late Show than any musical artist. Letterman's band leader Paul Shaffer has played on a number of Blues Traveler recordings.

In 1992, the group founded the

Mainstream breakthrough

The band's fourth album, titled

The double live album Live from the Fall was released in 1996. It featured recordings from the band's autumn 1995 concerts and showcased the strength of the band's live performances.

The next studio album, Straight On till Morning, also produced by Barbiero/Thompson, was released in 1997. It achieved platinum status, reaching number 11 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, but did not perform as well as four. The single "Carolina Blues" peaked at number four on the Mainstream Rock Tracks.

By the end of 1998, the band had prepared a

During the hiatus, Popper released a solo album with a backing band consisting of drummer Carter Beauford and members of the group Cycomotogoat.

The band made an appearance performing as themselves in the 1998 movie Blues Brothers 2000 and the 1999 independent film Wildflowers, which had been filmed a couple of years earlier.

Sheehan's death and new lineup

On August 20, 1999, Bobby Sheehan was found dead in his

The remaining members of Blues Traveler convened and agreed that Sheehan would have wanted them to continue as a band. Auditions for a new bassist were held in concert, and included Chan Kinchla's younger brother Tad, who was unanimously determined to be the best choice for the role. Additionally, the band also auditioned for a permanent keyboardist -- an action Sheehan had often urged. In January 2000,[11] Ben Wilson of the jump blues band Big Dave & the Ultrasonics was chosen, and has since become a central contributor to the band's songwriting.

The band discarded their concept album material, instead releasing a smaller online EP, Decisions of the Sky: A Traveler's Tale of Sun and Storm, and went to work collectively composing a new set of songs with the new lineup. The resulting album was Bridge, which had the working title Bridge Outta Brooklyn as a tribute to Sheehan (with both the acronym B.O.B. and his nickname "Brooklyn Bobby"). The songs "Girl Inside My Head" and "Just for Me" received airplay, but the album's sales fell somewhat short of expectations.

The live album What You and I Have Been Through and the compilation Travelogue: Blues Traveler Classics were both released in 2002.

Independent years

Blues Traveler were one of dozens of artists who were jettisoned as part of A&M's corporate restructuring. The band signed with Sanctuary Records for their next album, Truth Be Told, which achieved number 147 on The Top 200 chart.^{[citation needed]} The band's 2003 Independence Day concerts at Red Rocks Amphitheatre were released on the CD Live on the Rocks and the DVD Thinnest of Air, and include Ziggy Marley singing on his father's song "No Woman, No Cry".

The band left Sanctuary for

In 2007, Blues Traveler released the album Cover Yourself, a "best-of" album of previously released songs re-recorded and reinterpreted with acoustic instrumentation. It was released October 30, 2007, through Columbia/Red Ink Records.^[13] They did a national tour, with New Jersey-based singer-songwriter Lisa Bouchelle as opening act. After the tour John Popper and Lisa Bouchelle recorded the song "Only The Tequila Talking", which was released on her album Bleu Room with a Red Vase in 2010.

Blues Traveler

In September 2013, Blues Traveler signed with Las Vegas-based management firm, UD Factory.[16]

On April 7, 2015, the band released their twelfth studio album,

On June 7, 2021, Blues Traveler announced a new album to be titled "Traveler's Blues" and released a two sided EP with the songs that would be featured on the new album.^[23] The EP contained songs "Funky B*tch" & "Ball and Chain" which Features Christone "Kingfish" Ingram. The full album would be released the forthcoming month.

"Traveler's Blues" was Released on July 30, 2021.^[23] The album features covers of classic blues songs and features Crystal Bowersox, Wendy Moten, Christone "Kingfish" Ingram, Rita Wilson, John Scofield, Warren Haynes, The War and Treaty, Mickey Raphael, and Keb' Mo'. The album was nominated for "Best Traditional Blues Album / Best Traditional Blues Recording" at the 64th annual Grammy Awards.^[24]

Concert recordings

Blues Traveler allows and encourages fans to record and trade live performances,^[25] provided that no money changes hands and no profit is made. The band has also given permission for live fan-made recordings to be hosted on websites such as Live Music Archive and eTree.org. Recordings available there span from 1986 through the present day.

On more recent tours, they sell recordings of that very night's performance. Attendees can pre-purchase a copy of the show until 30 minutes into the performance and then pick up the CD after the show.

Independence Day shows at Red Rocks

Every year since 1994, with the exception of 1999 (due to John Popper's health) and 2020 (due to COVID-19), Blues Traveler has headlined a show at

This tradition started in 1992 when Blues Traveler was opening for The Allman Brothers Band at the venue for two nights, July 3 and 4. The next year, the band booked the HORDE festival to play there on Independence Day, and in 1994 the current tradition began in earnest.

These shows attract fans from all over the United States. The band frequently debuts new songs and brings back older songs which have fallen out of rotation.

The 2003 Independence Day concerts were recorded for a home video and a live album release.

Musical style

The band have been described as blues rock,^[26] folk rock,^[27] alternative rock,^[28] and southern rock.^[29]

Members

Timeline

Discography

• Blues Traveler (1990)
• Travelers and Thieves (1991)
• Save His Soul (1993)
• four (1994)
• Straight On till Morning (1997)
• Bridge (2001)
• Truth Be Told (2003)
• ¡Bastardos! (2005)
• Cover Yourself (2007)
• North Hollywood Shootout (2008)
• Suzie Cracks the Whip (2012)
• Blow Up the Moon (2015)
• Hurry Up & Hang Around (2018)
• Traveler's Blues (2021)^[30]
• Traveler's Soul (2023)

References