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Blues Traveler started out as a four-piece act comprising singer+harmonica
player John Popper, guitarist Chan Kinchla, bassist Bobby Sheehan and
drummer Brendan Hill; soon after forming in Princeton, New Jersey USA,
in 1983, these high school friends moved to New York City playing nightly
in the club and bar circuit. Balancing renowned musicianship with accessible
songcraft, combining Pop hooks with Blues and Rock influenced grooves,
the band was among the first in a new generation to win a reputation on
the road for explosive live performances and intense fan loyalty.
After being signed to A&M Records, in May 1990 the band released
its self-titled debut album making a modest impact on The Billboard 200
chart.
A year later, their next release titled "Travelers & Thieves",
shot to #1 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers list and reached the #125
slot on The Billboard Top 200 Albums chart.
Blues Traveler were forced to go on hiatus in 1992 when Popper was involved
in a car crash that left the frontman confined to a wheelchair for a period
of time.
The group returned with a new album, "Save His Soul", in April
1993, it broke into The Billboard 200 reaching #72 and spawned the Mainstream
Rock top 40 hit, "Conquer Me".
September 1994 saw the release of "Four", this album rose to
#8 on Billboard's Top 200 chart and became the band's biggest selling
LP ever; it included the massive smash "Run-Around" which peaked
at #8 on The Billboard Hot 100, cracked the top 20 of both Mainstream
and Modern Rock Tracks charts and won Blues Traveler a Grammy for Best
Rock Performance. Their multi-platinum album generated one more American
Top 40 hit single with "Hook", which also crossed over into
the Modern and Mainstream Rock top 20.
Two years later the band released the stop-gap double-CD live set, recorded
in late 1995, "Live From The Fall"; it reached the #46 slot
on The Billboard 200 chart.
In July 1997 Blues Traveler unleashed "Straight On Till Morning";
it rose to #11 on Billboard's Top 200 while its main single, "Carolina
Blues", hit #4 on The Mainstream Rock Tracks, their best chart-placing
to date and was followed by a second single, "Most Precarious",
which reached #25 on The Modern Rock chart and #27 on the Active Rock
list; even though the group's fifth studio album didn't quite match the
performance of "Four", either in terms of sales or reviews.
Two years later, while the band took a year off, John Popper recorded
a solo album, "Zygote", but two months before the CD's September
7, 1999, release, the 32-year-old rocker underwent an angioplasty, having
suffered from chest pains for nearly a year; not long afterward, on August
20, 1999, bassist Bob Sheehan died from a drug overdose in his New Orleans
home. He was just 31 years old.
Blues Traveler returned in the spring of 2001 with "Bridge",
this album, the first with keyboardist Ben Wilson, barely made a dent
on the top 100 of The Billboard 200 chart and A&M dropped the band
after the commercial disappointment of their sixth effort.
The group followed it up with the live set "What You And I Have Been
Through" and with the studio LP, "Truth Be Told", issued
in August 2003 on Sanctuary Records.
Anchored by founding members John Popper, Chan Kinchla and Brendan Hill,
with Ben Wilson and the addition of Tad Kinchla on bass as permanent member,
the band took the road and eventually released "Live On The Rocks"
in mid-2004.
Blues Traveler then headed into the studio with three years of cohesive
live performances and songwriting as a five-piece band, the result was
"Bastardos!", their eighth studio record, which included the
single "Amber Awaits".
August 2008 saw the New York City quintet release "North Hollywood
Shootout" on Verve Forecast, their largest label since parting from
A&M / Interscope at the turn of the millennium. The new album features
the preceding single "You, Me And Everything".
Blues Traveler biography is an exclusive of 100xr.com
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