Blues Traveler

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.

Album number five from these New York workhorses doesn't stray any perceptible distance from their patented, John Popper-blowing blues-rock formula. "Carolina Blues" is a tasty lead single, while "Justify the Thrill," "Great Big World," and "I Dreamed About You Last Night" seem like choice followups. There's even a love song called "Canadian Rose" complete with fond references to Vancouver and, of all unlikely places, Burlington. --Jeff Bateman

For every moment of transcendent groove, the jam-band ethos seems to have generated an eon of aimless instrumental indulgence. It's a mindset that bedeviled even icons like the Grateful Dead when they endeavored to construct something as elegantly--and elusively--simple as a song. Blues Traveler has hardly been immune from the foibles of excess, which makes this focused, song-oriented album an instant career high point. It's no mean feat to be both disciplined and adventurous but, with the able assistance of veteran producer Don Gehman, that's just the trick John Popper and company have turned here. For his part, mouth harp virtuoso Popper makes more like the Stax horns than Satriani, often content to punctuate his band's ever potent rhythms with flourishes as earthy as they are saturnine. But the real news here is the band's rededication to songcraft, an ethos that yields gems from the Little Feat dynamic of "Eventually" and jazz/R&B touches of "My Blessed Pain" and "Thinnest of Air" to the muscular pop hooks of "Let Her & Let Go" and rewarding funk-meets-classicism of "This Ache." It's a tack that's challenged Popper to warm new dimensions of vocal expressiveness as well, and the band to focus its powerhouse abilities into a gritty wallop. --Jerry McCulley

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

Led by John Popper's virtuoso harmonica playing, Blues Traveler introduced a distinctive new sound into the burgeoning New York City jam-band scene in the late 1980s. On their self-titled debut, the quartet introduced 11 blues-tinged rock tunes that in concert would spread out to extended improvisations, but on record often had the snap of compact, well-structured pop. "But Anyway," became an early signature tune, thanks to Popper's dexterous soloing and his rapid-fire delivery of the song's flippant lyrics. The shapeshifting "Slow Change," gives a better indication of the group's performance chops, as do "Sweet Talking Hippie," "Gina," and the wistful "100 Years," which have become longtime concert staples. --Daniel Durchholz

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."

This fourth album from the New York's Blues Traveler finally brought their harmonica-based blues riffs into the public eye. Indeed, "Run-Around" spent nearly a year on the Billboard singles chart. Harpman/vocalist John Popper moves easily between uptempo, rock-based tracks like "Stand" and "Crash Burn." The hidden gem here, however, is the love-struck ballad "Just Wait." Often categorized with post-Dead jam acts such as Phish, BT isn't immune from performance excesses. But when it comes to recording, they keep it (mostly) concise and always interesting. If you've heard the name and want to know what all the hoopla is about, Four is a great starting point. --Alexandra Russell