John Popper, Chan Kinchla, Brendan Hill, Bob Sheehan

CD

No Description Available.
Genre: Popular Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 5-JUN-1990

back to their tight form

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Over the course of their illustrious 25-year career, Blues Traveler have sold more than 10 million combined units worldwide, played over 2,000 live shows in front of more than 30 million people, and, in "Run-Around," had the longest-charting radio single in Billboard history, which earned them a Grammy® for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. A television favorite, they have been featured on Saturday Night Live, Austin City Limits, VH1's Behind the Music and they hold the record for the most appearances of any artist on The Late Show with David Letterman.

On March 6, 2012, Hip-O Select/Universal Music Enterprises (UMe) releases Blues Traveler: 25, a 2-CD retrospective that spans the first 25 years of the band's incredible recording career. 25 features a total of 29 tracks including a newly recorded cover version of Sublime's "What I Got," their greatest hits, B-sides, unreleased demos and rarities-- among them a remix of "Run-Around" by acclaimed electronic producers Gunslinger, and excerpts from the band's online concept album Decision of the Skies: A Traveler Tale of Sun and Storm.

Live From the Fall album by Blues Traveler.

One of the most beloved live bands on the scene today Blues Traveler are currently on an extensive package tour with Live and Collective Soul. They will be on the road throughout the fall promoting their Verve Forecast debut North Hollywood Shootout.

The first single will be "You, Me and Everything."

Blues Traveler are a hippie blues'n'boogie band in the mode of Canned Heat and Savoy Brown. Led by John Popper, a rotund singer and harmonica player, the New Jersey quartet captured the open-ended jam mentality of its live shows on its first two studio albums. On their third album, Save His Soul, Blues Traveler tightens up their arrangements and puts more emphasis on songwriting and premeditated parts. While this cuts down on the meandering solos and monotonous rhythm patterns, it forces attention on the hackneyed aphorisms and melody-starved chord changes that pass for the band's songwriting. On the other hand, they have improved noticeably as players, and bassist Bobby Sheehan shines in particular on the fast and tricky syncopations.

Blues Traveler's sixth album is a bittersweet affair, originally dubbed Bridge out of Brooklyn in homage to founding bassist Bobby ("Brooklyn Bob") Sheehan, who died of an overdose in 1999. After much debate the band decided to simply call it Bridge, signifying both a subtle tribute to their fallen compatriot and a demarcation between the two segments in their career, Before Bob and After Bob. The album is formally dedicated to Sheehan, and his ghost wafts through many of the tracks--most poignantly on "Pretty Angry (For J. Sheehan)," written for the bassist's brother. The anxious lyrics reveal that John Popper and the band are not yet over his loss, only having worked their way through the second stage of grief, lamenting: "I don't know which was the bigger waste of time, missing you or wishing it was me." Besides allowing the band to mourn, Bridge also gives Blues Traveler a chance to clean house, recycling "The Way" and "Decision of the Skies," two rather grandiose songs once slated for the band's now-abandoned concept album. But on the whole Bridge is a rather lackluster affair, weighed down with clichés, lumbering and dispirited jams, and inane lyrics like "[Y]ou can start to give that inner brat a hug, till the dickhead pulls the rug," from "Rage." The one stand-out track is "Girl Inside My Head," a whimsical inner dialogue between Popper and his id, but other than this clever bit of fluff, Blues Traveler's Bridge is a dead end. --Jaan Uhelszki