{"id":31663,"date":"2026-10-08T05:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T09:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=31663"},"modified":"2026-06-09T14:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T18:31:10","slug":"blues-traveler-40-years-of-run-away-success-part-2-of-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/08\/blues-traveler-40-years-of-run-away-success-part-2-of-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Blues Traveler: 40 Years of Run-Away Success (Part 2 of 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One<\/a>…<\/i><\/p>\n

Speaking of which, in recent years some artists have scaled back \u2013 or in some cases completely dispensed with the idea of \u2013 making albums. Instead, they become strictly a live act. Blues Traveler has not done that. Tell me about the importance of making new recordings. <\/b><\/p>\n

It\u2019s important. It takes a lot of motivation. It requires a lot of emotional effort to navigate a creative enterprise with \u2013 between producers, band members and so on \u2013 eight \u201ccooks.\u201d So it\u2019s daunting, especially when you think that it\u2019s probably not going to make any money. It\u2019s just a brand profile thing, almost like an advertisement for the band.<\/p>\n

We actually haven\u2019t made an album of original music since 2018; Hurry Up & Hang Around<\/i> was our last one. Though we did do those really cool covers records [Traveler\u2019s Blues<\/i> in 2021, and Traveler\u2019s Soul<\/i> in 2023] which were a lot of fun to make. And we got nominated for a Grammy on the blues record, so I guess we can<\/i> play blues!<\/p>\n

We\u2019re bandying around the idea. But one thought is that we should just do two songs: \u201cMaybe let\u2019s just do some singles and see how that evolves.\u201d Because we\u2019re pretty established now. Young bands need those albums as a calling card, so they have to do albums. But they\u2019re usually in a position where they can take the time. And they have the energy, because they\u2019re young. We\u2019re lazy old farts!<\/p>\n

\"\"

John Popper of Blues Traveler<\/p><\/div>\n

How has the band\u2019s musical character changed or evolved over the years?<\/b><\/p>\n

In a lot of ways. In the beginning, we were just hell-bent. We were like hippie punk rock. We were so fast and in-your-face, and as far as musicianship we just got by on a lot of energy. Listening to some of those old things \u2013 when we were 20, playing in a little bar in New York \u2013 the energy is just crazy. And as young dudes, that works great. But you can\u2019t play like that as you\u2019re growing. I think we\u2019ve gotten a lot better as players; more relaxed, more refined.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll speak for myself: I\u2019m so much better a musician, so much more tasteful and patient and better at listening and all those good things that come with learning to play live and improvise with other people.<\/p>\n

For the band specifically, after Bobby passed away, we added Tad [Kinchla]. He\u2019s a little bit of a different bass player, more of a funk player. And we added [Ben Wilson on] keyboards; for me, that was fantastic because I finally had some chords I could play melody over. Whereas in the past a lot of my solos were half chords, half melody.<\/p>\n

But we sounded great back then too. It was a very different approach and it was very much punch-you-in-the-face. We\u2019re from New York; whaddya gonna do!?<\/p>\n

Other than the passing of Bobby and then Ben and Tad joining, you\u2019ve got the same lineup as you had at the very beginning. That kind of consistency is not typical for bands. What holds Blues Traveler together?<\/b><\/p>\n

Like I always say, we went to school together, so we kind of grew up together. There are a lot of bonds that go way back. I\u2019d say the that majority of bands [didn\u2019t start out as] high school bands; they met in town a couple of years later, whatever. So [as individuals] they kind of came in fully formed.<\/p>\n

And I think that adds to the family element for us. All our parents know each other. We\u2019re all from Princeton, New Jersey. We look at it like we\u2019re family. We can have fights, arguments, disagreements, but we\u2019re going to be back together because we\u2019re family. And I think that\u2019s helped a lot. Just that we grew up together in Princeton helped us weather all that.<\/p>\n

Our main thing when were starting out in Brendan [Hill\u2019s] basement was that we just loved playing live, improvising. We always wanted to be a cool live<\/i> band. Obviously doing the records and writing songs was part of that. But when things got rocky on the business or career side, we\u2019d always just go back to playing. We love playing live, and we can do that. So that kept us moving forward. Playing live has never failed us. So we\u2019ve leaned on that in tougher times; the other stuff can come and go.<\/p>\n

You describe Blues Traveler as a family. The family has a 40th anniversary next year. Have you given any thought to how you\u2019re going to observe, commemorate, celebrate that milestone?<\/b><\/p>\n

Well, we\u2019ve been rocking the whole time. We\u2019re touring every year, so I\u2019m sure someone in our business side of things will use it to sell tickets!<\/p>\n

W<\/b>hat\u2019s one of the most valuable lessons that you\u2019ve learned in more than four decades of being a touring musician?<\/b><\/p>\n

Bring cool tapestries for your hotel room, because the lighting sucks! You want a couple cool, sarong-size tapestries; just small ones so you can throw them on those hideous lights that hotel rooms have. It really steps up the vibe. I also bring some Nag Champa incense with me, just in case. And the Sony PS5 is great, because you can basically stream everything through there. So a few tapestries, some Nag Champa and a PS5 and you\u2019re basically bringing home with you. So that\u2019s my advice, from a hard-touring guy who\u2019s 40 years into it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One… Speaking of which, in recent years some artists have scaled back \u2013 or in some cases completely dispensed with the idea of \u2013 making albums. Instead, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31668,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","cat-1-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31663"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31669,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31663\/revisions\/31669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}