Blues Traveler Bio
A New York-based blues-rock quartet formed in 1988 by
singer/harmonica player John Popper, guitarist Chan Kinchla, bassist
Bobby Sheehan, and drummer Brendan Hill, Blues Traveler was part of a
revival of the extended jamming style of '60s and '70s groups like the
Grateful Dead and Led Zeppelin. Signed to A&M, they released their
first album, Blues Traveler, in May 1990 and followed it with Travelers
& Thieves in September 1991. Popper was in a serious car accident
in 1992, leaving him unable to perform for a number of months.
Fortunately, he recovered, yet he still had to perform in a wheelchair
for a period of time. In April 1993, Blues Traveler released its third
album, Save His Soul, which became its first to make the Top 100. Blues
Traveler's aptly named fourth album, Four, released in September 1994,
at first looked like a sales disappointment, but it rebounded in 1995
when "Run-Around," a single taken from it, became the group's first
chart hit. "Run-Around" became one of the biggest singles of 1995,
spending nearly a full year on the charts and sending Four into
quintuple platinum status.
As the group prepared the follow-up to Four, Blues Traveler released
the live double-album Live From the Fall in the summer of 1996. The
group returned in the summer of 1997 with its fifth studio album,
Straight on Till Morning. After completing his 1999 debut solo effort
Zygote, Popper -- who'd been experiencing chest pains for months -- was
forced to undergo an angioplasty; weeks later, tragedy struck on August
20, 1999, when Sheehan was found dead in his New Orleans home. He was
just 31 years old. The new millennium saw a newly charged Blues
Traveler, and their sixth record, Bridge, appeared in May 2001. The
next winter, Blues Traveler released the live What You and I Have Been
Through. The studio record Truth Be Told followed in 2003, and another
concert album, Live on the Rocks, appeared in 2004. The group returned
to the studio in 2004, releasing the Jay Bennett-produced Bastardos in
September of the following year. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
Written by William Ruhlmann
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