Blues Traveler is an American rock band that formed in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1987. The group is known for creative segues during live performances and pioneering 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 bassist Bobby Sheehan in 1999. The band have been described as blues rock, folk rock, alternative rock, and southern rock.
Their singles include "But Anyway", "Run-Around", and "Hook", the latter two from their 1994 album Four which sold over six million copies worldwide.
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. Blues Traveler has remained active with a number of independent labels and record producers.
Traveler's Blues, an album of blues covers, was released in July 2021, and was nominated by The Recording Academy for Best Traditional Blues album at the 2022 Grammy Awards. Their follow-up album, Traveler’s Soul, a collection of R'n'B and Soul covers, was released in October of 2023.
Blues Traveler originated as a high school garage band in Princeton, New Jersey in the mid-1980s. Harmonicist, singer and guitarist John Popper and drummer Brendan Hill formed a group called The Establishment (later renamed Blues Band) with Hill's brother on bass and a rotating roster of guitarists. The band produced a few cassette tape demos. In addition to some original songs, their repertoire included upbeat covers of "Gloria" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic".
The group added guitarist and football player Chan Kinchla. Though a promising athlete, Kinchla decided to commit to music following a knee injury. Popper met bassist Bobby Sheehan and the two became friends, with Sheehan becoming the bass player for Blues Band in 1987.
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 its mascot.
The group changed their name to Blues Traveler, inspired by the demon featured in the film Ghostbusters, Gozer the Traveler.
After graduating from Princeton High School and moving to New York City, Popper, Hill, and Sheehan enrolled in the music program at The New School while Kinchla attended New York University. Blues Traveler began playing gigs along the New York-area club circuit, sometimes nightly; the most prominent contract was playing Wednesday nights at a club called the Wetlands. Another bar, The Nightingale, was a regular gig, and later became the setting for the song "Defense and Desire".
The group shared an apartment on Bergen Street in Brooklyn, New York, along with their high school friend, singer Chris Barron. A second band that Popper and Hill founded, called The Trucking Company, soon became The Spin Doctors with Barron as their frontman. The two groups would often share the stage, playing non-stop concerts of multiple sets. 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.
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. 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.
Blues Traveler released their self-titled debut album in 1990, 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. Upon Bill Graham's death that year, they released a live EP, On Tour Forever, 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, 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 H.O.R.D.E. festival as an alternative to others such as Lollapalooza, along with other bands such as Phish and Spin Doctors. Blues Traveler began recording their third album, Save His Soul. Recording was temporarily interrupted by John Popper's motorcycle accident, although the band resumed touring shortly thereafter with Popper in a wheelchair. Two singles were released from the album, "Defense & Desire" and "Conquer Me", which reached No. 34 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.
The band's fourth album, titled Four, was produced by the team of Michael Barbiero and Steve Thompson and released in late 1994. The upbeat pop single "Run-Around" became the group's first chart hit followed by "Hook". "Run-Around" won a Grammy Award and broke a record for most weeks on the chart.
Blues Traveler appeared at Woodstock '94 and later became an opening act for The Rolling Stones. The band played on the 1995 season premiere of Saturday Night Live as a last-minute replacement for Prince. They were featured in an episode of the sitcom Roseanne, and later recorded the show's theme song for its final season. The 1996 comedy film Kingpin featured the group playing their song "But Anyway" during the closing credits.