Blues Traveler has been around for a while to say the least. Road traveled and tested with 13 records to date. During 2020, the year that really wasn’t, they took the downtime to record a group of tribute tunes. Songs deep in history and tradition from blues and rock dating all the way back to the roaring 20’s up to the rockin’ ‘70s. A collection called Traveler’s Blues.
Now that the worst of the pandemic’s behind us (we hope), most of the masks are off, movies are returning to theaters and bands are touring/playing live again. Blues Traveler seems to be a bit ahead of the game already near 10 gigs deep into a 22–date stretch as live event cabin fever spreads globally.
They haven’t toured since last March. “The longest time I’ve been off the road since I’ve been 19,” guitarist Chan Kinchia says. “I kinda liked it but I’m glad it’s over.”
Their comeback show was Red Rocks in Colorado. ”That was a great launching point. The first gig back was a celebration!”
Going strong for 30 years getting off the road for a bit made them appreciate what it is they get to do. “Go, rock out, play in a cool band and make live music on a regular basis. It was nice to be home.” Kinchia filled his time jamming and hanging out. “I haven’t played like that since I was a kid, figuring out cool solos I liked from my favorite artists. This new album we did, this blues record was cool. It’s good to be back.”
Traveler’s Blues is much more than a cover album for them, “We’re covering some classic blues songs. Blues, our genre, it’s kinda all covers anyway, artists interpretations. That’s what turned us on to the blues when we were younger. It’s a form that’s very simple so every performance was its own unique moment. That’s what really turned us on, the improvisational, in the moment, musical vehicle that it was. We kind of evolved it from there, went far afield with Blues Traveler. All these songs have been covered by a dozen great artists. We went back as far as we could to the earliest recording.”
Some tunes origins date back to their High School years while others stretch back to the ‘30s and beyond of original recording.
The decision what to include was a group effort. “Like most things it was hard to put your finger on.” Roundhouse Records has licenses to a huge blues catalogue. “We’d talked about doing this for a decade or more. We partnered up and it was a great resource to get the ball rolling. We had this huge master list. We all looked through it. Everyone threw in songs they thought would be cool, including the guy that ran the record company, our manager, Matt Rollings and our producers via email. Our fearless producer Matt Rollings gets credit for weaving it down to everyone’s best, the top of the heap.”
It was recorded in the middle of the global madness, so there were all kinds of protocols and logistics traveling to the studio and getting guest spots done. The band got together in Nashville and recorded all the tracks. Rollings worked our last record; we have a great relationship with him.” He gets the credit for making it all happen and all the incredible guest vocals we now get to hear.
The opener plays like a “Funky Bitch” and a great live number with a good cross-section. “It’s a blues standard but it’s got a little Traveler vibe to it. We weren’t sure how we were gonna treat this. That’s the first song we did, messing with the organ. Our come to Jesus moment when we figured we could make these our own.” They might be asking for some trouble with the gospel, organ vibe and church feel though.
“Ball & Chain’s” got a smoky, barroom vibe, “We’ve been playing that one a lot live too. We had great guests on that with Christone “Kingfish” Ingram. I stole a bunch of his licks,” he jokes. “We break that down real quiet when we play it. It goes over great.”
“Roadhouse Blues” seemed perfect for Blues Traveler dating back to their teens listening on classic rock radio. “We couldn’t get it out of our heads.” They tried to get as close as possible to The Doors without putting too much of their own special sauce on it. Though hearing them play “The End” with its moody, inherent darkness would have been interesting especially hearing John Popper saying, Father… I wanna… “We were joking about that. We did that in the studio, it’s recorded somewhere. We had to try it and we did.” Maybe someday on a future box set or expanded greatest hits we’ll get to hear it.
A couple tribute tunes are played each night with different choices and experimentation with each show while mixing in some deep cuts and hits. “We’re messing around with a few so we’ll have at least two. It’s a mix of everything. We’re always changing the set around, you never know. We’re always goofing around some covers for fun. We try and keep it fresh on a nightly basis.”
Popper’s known for his pipes both through the microphone and the harmonica, though he plays it more like a guitar than a mouth organ. “Someone asked who John’s favorite harmonica player was and I said Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix was his idol as a kid. He was into comedy when he was really young and got into The Blues Brothers. Dan Aykroyd inspired him to play. His talent took him from there.”
Half of the band name was inspired by The Ghostbusters, “We were a blues band in high school, moving to New York in ’87. In 1986, we were playing up in Princeton, NJ. We realized blues band was a little generic for New York, Ghostbusters was out, we liked Gozer The Traveler. We were high school kids and thought it was a cool idea of the traveler. We stuck it together. Probably should’ve been The Traveler, but Blues Traveler has a nice ring to it actually.” They did do The Ghostbusters theme once and Chan says maybe it should be walk on music.
They’ve done a lot of high profile shows including an opening run for The Rolling Stones starting in Chicago at Soldier Field meeting Mick Jagger and a few others, “It was wild, the energy was amazing. Those experiences you just pinch yourself.” The excitement overwhelmed any nerves; they’d also been playing for five-seven years straight by then.
They played the day before the NIN mudshow at Woodstock in ’94 when they were making a name. They also did H.O.R.D.E. Festival for several years.
They’re very happy to be back out early, leading the charge and setting the bar for post-pandemic live rock music. “We’re out in front of the wave, having a blast.”
They’ve been on screen a few times as well, in Blues Brothers 2000, though their serious claim to cinematic fame is Kingpin. He also has a small part, technically a limb in The Doors film when his hand is briefly seem on screen playing guitar during the Golden Gate Park hippie scene.
Being around since ’87, they’re still a band that can say they were on MTV. They even got Remote Control host Ken Ober to appear in the “Hook” video.
To everyone coming to Franklin, OH tomorrow night and anyone still deciding Kinchia says, “Let’s go out and have a good time! The ‘rona’s over, its live music and party’n with people. You can’t recreate that on a computer. Vax out, get out and see some stuff!”
Blues Traveler returns to J.D. Legends for their third appearance Friday, July 16 with Lovebomb. Check https://jdlegends.com/ for more information or https://www.facebook.com/jdlegendsconcerts
