BLUES TRAVELER
''BLOW UP THE MOON''
APRIL 17 2015
52:18
----------
1 Hurricane (With 3OH!3) 03:41
2 Blow Up The Moon (With 3OH!3 & JC Chasez (Of NSync)) 04:27
3 Castaway (With Dirty Heads & Rome Ramirez) 03:08
4 Vagabond Blues (With Dirty Heads & Rome Ramirez) 03:02
5 Top Of The World (With Hanson) 04:18
6 Nikkia's Prom (With Plain White T's) 03:29
7 Matador (With Thompson Square) 03:58
8 I Can Still Feel You (With Thompson Square) 04:09
9 The Darkness We All Need (With Secondhand Serenade) 03:51
10 Jackie's Baby (With New Hollow) 04:15
11 Hearts Are Still Awake (With Jewel) 03:41
12 I Know Right (With Bowling For Soup) 03:27
13 Right Here Waiting For You (With Bowling For Soup) 03:12
14 All The Way (With Thomas Ian Nicholas) 03:33
John Popper/Vocals, Harmonica
Chan Kinchla/Guitars
Tad Kinchla/Bass Guitar
Ben Wilson/Keyboards
Brendan Hill/Drums, Percussion
----------
REVIEW/AMG
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
** Of *****
Just when it seemed as if Blues Traveler were settling into a nice, mature roots groove, the band up and makes a star-studded crossover pop album from 2006. The hitch is, Blow Up the Moon arrives in 2015, about a decade or more removed from the glory days of all involved. Apart from Thompson Square, a country act who first debuted in 2011, the guest stars read like the soundtrack to a very special episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip: JC Chasez sways in to sing on the title track, Plain White T's of "Hey Delilah" fame play on "Nikkia's Prom," Bowling for Soup show up for two songs, as do 3OH!3, and fellow class-of-1997 alumni Jewel and Hanson both show up for a track apiece (as does American Pie survivor Thomas Ian Nichols, looking to show that he's something more than an actor and not doing a bad job of it). With all these hands-on cooks, Blow Up the Moon feels more like a buffet than a carefully crafted meal; depending on your stylistic persuasion, there may be something to satisfy. The problem with all this diversity is Blow Up the Moon doesn't particularly sound like a Blues Traveler album. All of the artists, even Thomas Ian Nichols, put an indelible stamp on their respective tracks, so this winds up playing like a NOW That's What I Call Adult Alternative Pop from 2006 where John Popper suddenly crashes the party so he can lay down a little harp. No matter how many times Popper pops up -- a total of 14 songs, the length of the entire record -- the incongruity is never not jarring because, apart from the pretty good Jewel ballad "Hearts Are Still Awake" and the nasty condescension of BFS' "I Know Right," Blues Traveler never feel integrated into the proceedings. This may not make for an especially good Blues Traveler record yet it does make Blow Up the Moon pleasingly bizarre, a pandering time capsule bound to satisfy no one. In some ways, a record this monumentally odd is better than a good record.
----------
ABOUT THE ALBUM
Blues Traveler have gradually received the music industry runaround ever since the top 10 success of Four 20 years ago. Since then, they’ve released albums every few years on a variety of labels with diminishing returns. That’s why they decided to take a thinking out-of-the-box approach to their 12th studio album, Blow Up the Moon, which comes out April 7.
Rather than hole up in a studio for several months and record new songs, the quintet led by original members singer/harmonica specialist John Popper, guitarist Chan Kinchla and drummer Brendan Hill reached out to a number of alt-rock band for collaborative assistance. Blow Up the Moon includes tracks co-written and performed by Hanson, Jewel, Rome Ramirez (from Sublime with Rome), Dirty Heads, Plain White T’s, Bowling for Soup, 30H!3, Secondhand Serenade, Thompson Square and New Hollow.
“We were desperate to find some kind of way to change out functionality,” says Popper. “My mentor Jono Manson suggested we do collaborations. We worked with professional songwriters -- Ron Sexsmith, Carrie Rodriguez -- on the last album [2012’s Suzie Cracks the Whip]. This album became an extension of that process of working with people we never worked with before. They appreciate you in ways you can’t appreciate yourself. The band took to it like ducks in water.”
Traveler’s manager, Lani Sarem at UD Factory based in Las Vegas, urged the band to be open to not just work with songwriters, but perform with them on the album as well. Plain White T’s, who pitch in “Nikkia’s Prom,” are now part of Sarem’s UD Factory stable.
“Lani had a wish list of people,” Popper explains. “We physically went to where they worked – we did a lot in Nashville and recorded in Dave Grohl’s studio in LA. The sounds were different. The album came out like Santana’s Supernatural.”
It’s an apt comparison, though Supernatural featured A-list stars like Rob Thomas and Wyclef Jean and went on to sweep the Grammys in 2000. But this could be Blues Traveler’s biggest success since Four, which produced two top 40 hits -- “Runaround” (No. 9) and “Hook” (No. 23). Already, a couple of songs -- the lead track “Hurricane” with 3OH!3 and *NSYNC’s JC Chasez, and the reggae-flavored “Vagabond Blues with Ramirez and Dirty Heads -- are receiving airplay on SiriusXM’s Jam On channel.
Born and raised in Princeton, N.J., Popper, Kinchla, Hill and their deceased original bassist Bobby Sheehan attended Princeton High in the mid-’80s. They actually played in the PHS Studio Band that’s the focus of the Oscar-nominated film, Whiplash. Anthony Biancosino, known to students as “Dr. B,” was the instructor at the time. In the movie, he’s played by J.K. Simmons, whose portrayal as a no-nonsense screamer earned Oscar, Golden Globe and Spirit awards as Best Supporting Actor. But Popper doesn’t recall Dr. B berating his students like he does in the movie, especially Miles Teller who plays the drummer in the band.
“Well, he was little rough on Brendan,” he says about Hill. “He did yell at him. But not quite like in the movie.”
Biancosino died in 2003, the same year Traveler’s Truth Be Told album was released. The band now consists of the Core Three, plus Kinchla’s brother Tad on bass and Ben Wilson on keyboards.
During the band’s heyday, Popper conceived the HORDE Tour, which began in 1991 and crisscrossed the country for seven summers. The first year featured a who’s who of original jam bands -- Traveler, Spin Doctors, Widespread Panic and headliner Phish -- and succeeding tours included everyone from the Black Crowes to Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers. Constantly asked if there are any plans to revive the HORDE Tour, the band has always left the door open. In fact, this summer Traveler will join up with 311 for a one-off HORDE show on July 9 at the Pine Knob ski area near Clarkston, Mich.
“We’re adding new acts to the bill every day and it’s going to be great,” Popper confides with a dose of his old swagger. “I’m bringing my sword!”
----------
MORE ABOUT
By Loud&Proud Records.com
After selling millions of records and logging thousands of miles on the road, GRAMMY award-winning band Blues Traveler continue to chart new musical directions evident on their upcoming record Blow Up The Moon. A clever collaboration between various artists, Blow Up The Moon sees Blues Traveler keep an open-minded perspective on making music and enlists an eclectic mix of songwriters influenced by the band’s remarkable 25+ year career.
Blow Up the Moon is the first collaborative album that Blues Traveler has ever made. Prior to these sessions, it was rare for the band to have someone else perform on their songs and even more rare to have anyone outside the band write with them. This process was a unique and successful experience for each of these artists who each found new depths and energy in their writing and performance. Blow Up The Moon is an exciting collaboration featuring a range of artists across the spectrum, representing country, pop, reggae and hip-hop.
“We wanted to experiment with co-writing since we usually try to do everything in-house, in this misguided homage to The Beatles,” says singer John Popper. Blow Up The Moon allowed Blues Traveler to expand their musical palette while holding the foundation of their distinct and explosive brand of rock. “We found quality writers to see what they could bring to us as a band, and also people who could see our strengths, something that’s hard to see for yourself.”
Blow Up The Moon features collaborating artists Thompson Square, Plain White T’s, 3OH!3, Dirty Heads and Rome Ramirez (Sublime), Hanson, Jewel, Secondhand Serenade, JC Chasez (*NSYNC), Bowling for Soup, New Hollow and Thomas Ian Nicholas.
The concept for Blow Up The Moon came about when the band was commemorating the 20th anniversary of their six-times platinum, award-winning and breakthrough album Four. “Once the idea was put out there, the thing took on a life of its own,” says guitarist Chan Kinchla. “We had so much fun reinvigorating our songwriting. This was an organic process that worked.”
“Nikkia’s Prom,” which Blues Traveler collaborated on with the Chicago pop-punk band Plain White T’s, was brought about through a Twitter conversation. While the groups had not met before, Popper and Plain White T’s vocalist Tom Higgenson bonded over the film Kill Bill. “Nikkia’s Prom” imagines what would happen if the daughter of Uma Thurman’s badass assassin showed up at her future high school dance. As drummer Brendan Hill said, “Like with all the bands we worked with, we just hit it off with them very easily. John and Tom holed themselves in a room and the rest of us just worked on key changes and rhythms. We all had the same kind of humor.”
Sharing humor and an open-minded perspective on music made the collaboration between Blues Traveler and electronic duo Sean Foreman and Nathaniel Motte, better known as 3OH!3, work so well. 3OH!3 are represented with two cuts on the disc, “Hurricane” and the title track which also includes contributions from J.C. Chasez (*NSYNC). Keyboardist Ben Wilson says Foreman, “is one of those real grinders who pored over every word all day until he felt we had a real coherent tune. And Sean played an instrument called a guitalele, which looks like a ukulele, but has six strings. When you hear it in this context it has a twangy sound that’s just awesome.”
Blues Traveler also had a relaxed time working with the California ska-punk band Dirty Heads on “Castaway” and “Vagabond,” which singer Rome Ramirez (from Sublime) produced. “Both bands just kicked back, handed some chords down and everybody added lyrics,” said bassist Tad Kinchla. “We would just learn the chords while we were all in the room together and played it the way we felt. It’s the luck of getting along with people.”
While Keifer and Shawna Thompson from the popular country team Thompson Square are a very different group than 3OH!3 or Dirty Heads, they were equally excited to work with Blues Traveler on “I Can Still Feel You” and “Matador.” The latter piece was written with Merle Haggard in mind and how he deserved more respect within the music industry. It’s a theme both groups know all too well, especially as they dare to challenge any imposed limitations. “They want to push boundaries,” Popper said of Thomson Square. “Generally, they stick to love songs, but here they wrote a philosophical statement about how the industry will embrace you and then turn on you. With them, we enabled each other to broaden the idea of genre and help it lose its meaning. Music is never supposed to be monogamous.”
A few stars that ascended at the time of Four also make guest appearances on Blow Up The Moon. Jewel lends her voice to “Hearts Are Still Awake,” and Thomas Ian Nicholas (star of American Pie), worked with Blues Traveler on “All The Way.” Hanson, the brothers who gave the world “Mmmbop,” join in on “Top Of The World.” Wilson said, “Hanson were huge fans of us back in the day – they were little kids then and 14 years later, here they are, grown men and had the tune almost the way they thought it should go, and we played it down until we got it right. They’re great singers and cool songwriters.”
Other collaborators on Blow Up The Moon include Secondhand Serenade who perform on “Darkness,” and co-wrote “Hearts Are Still Awake.” “Jackie’s Baby,” a song of soaring hooks and the collaboration with New Hollow, is according to Popper a new slant on the imagery in The Beatles’ “Rocky Raccoon.” Working with Bowling For Soup on “Waiting For You” and “I Know Right,” proves that Blues Traveler is in no danger of taking itself too seriously. That piece is a satirical look at online communication. “That title phrase just covers everything now,” Popper said. “It’s easy to talk to someone or beat up someone on Twitter, but try to come up with something new to say.”
Blues Traveler plan to spend all of 2015 on the road and are looking at more collaborative projects in the future since, as Wilson said, “There are a lot of different ways to write songs, and so many different ways to work with other people and arrive at the same place. It was reaffirming, but also instructive in teaching us how to say something simpler. When you listen to what came out of it, it’s something to be proud of.”
Loud & Proud Records will release Blow Up The Moon on both CD and vinyl in North America via RED Distribution (a division of Sony Music Entertainment) and in the rest of the world through earMUSIC. Loud & Proud see Blues Traveler as a relevant artist and the collaborations as exciting partnerships proving the band’s versatility.
----------
BIOGRAPHY/AMG
by William Ruhlmann
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 were 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 their third album, Save His Soul, which became the band's 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. In 2007, Blues Traveler released Cover Yourself, a collection of previous hits reworked with acoustic arrangements. The David Bianco-produced North Hollywood Shootout appeared from Verve Forecast in 2008. In March 2012, the band released 25, a two-disc set (one disc of hits and key tracks and a second disc of B-sides, demos, and rarities) celebrating the group's 25th anniversary. It was followed in June by Suzie Cracks the Whip, the group's 11th studio album, which was produced by S*A*M & Sluggo, and featured guest spots from Ron Sexsmith, Chris Barron (Spin Doctors), and Crystal Bowersox.
WEBSITE
TO THE TOP
''BLOW UP THE MOON''
APRIL 17 2015
52:18
----------
1 Hurricane (With 3OH!3) 03:41
2 Blow Up The Moon (With 3OH!3 & JC Chasez (Of NSync)) 04:27
3 Castaway (With Dirty Heads & Rome Ramirez) 03:08
4 Vagabond Blues (With Dirty Heads & Rome Ramirez) 03:02
5 Top Of The World (With Hanson) 04:18
6 Nikkia's Prom (With Plain White T's) 03:29
7 Matador (With Thompson Square) 03:58
8 I Can Still Feel You (With Thompson Square) 04:09
9 The Darkness We All Need (With Secondhand Serenade) 03:51
10 Jackie's Baby (With New Hollow) 04:15
11 Hearts Are Still Awake (With Jewel) 03:41
12 I Know Right (With Bowling For Soup) 03:27
13 Right Here Waiting For You (With Bowling For Soup) 03:12
14 All The Way (With Thomas Ian Nicholas) 03:33
John Popper/Vocals, Harmonica
Chan Kinchla/Guitars
Tad Kinchla/Bass Guitar
Ben Wilson/Keyboards
Brendan Hill/Drums, Percussion
----------
REVIEW/AMG
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
** Of *****
Just when it seemed as if Blues Traveler were settling into a nice, mature roots groove, the band up and makes a star-studded crossover pop album from 2006. The hitch is, Blow Up the Moon arrives in 2015, about a decade or more removed from the glory days of all involved. Apart from Thompson Square, a country act who first debuted in 2011, the guest stars read like the soundtrack to a very special episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip: JC Chasez sways in to sing on the title track, Plain White T's of "Hey Delilah" fame play on "Nikkia's Prom," Bowling for Soup show up for two songs, as do 3OH!3, and fellow class-of-1997 alumni Jewel and Hanson both show up for a track apiece (as does American Pie survivor Thomas Ian Nichols, looking to show that he's something more than an actor and not doing a bad job of it). With all these hands-on cooks, Blow Up the Moon feels more like a buffet than a carefully crafted meal; depending on your stylistic persuasion, there may be something to satisfy. The problem with all this diversity is Blow Up the Moon doesn't particularly sound like a Blues Traveler album. All of the artists, even Thomas Ian Nichols, put an indelible stamp on their respective tracks, so this winds up playing like a NOW That's What I Call Adult Alternative Pop from 2006 where John Popper suddenly crashes the party so he can lay down a little harp. No matter how many times Popper pops up -- a total of 14 songs, the length of the entire record -- the incongruity is never not jarring because, apart from the pretty good Jewel ballad "Hearts Are Still Awake" and the nasty condescension of BFS' "I Know Right," Blues Traveler never feel integrated into the proceedings. This may not make for an especially good Blues Traveler record yet it does make Blow Up the Moon pleasingly bizarre, a pandering time capsule bound to satisfy no one. In some ways, a record this monumentally odd is better than a good record.
----------
ABOUT THE ALBUM
Blues Traveler have gradually received the music industry runaround ever since the top 10 success of Four 20 years ago. Since then, they’ve released albums every few years on a variety of labels with diminishing returns. That’s why they decided to take a thinking out-of-the-box approach to their 12th studio album, Blow Up the Moon, which comes out April 7.
Rather than hole up in a studio for several months and record new songs, the quintet led by original members singer/harmonica specialist John Popper, guitarist Chan Kinchla and drummer Brendan Hill reached out to a number of alt-rock band for collaborative assistance. Blow Up the Moon includes tracks co-written and performed by Hanson, Jewel, Rome Ramirez (from Sublime with Rome), Dirty Heads, Plain White T’s, Bowling for Soup, 30H!3, Secondhand Serenade, Thompson Square and New Hollow.
“We were desperate to find some kind of way to change out functionality,” says Popper. “My mentor Jono Manson suggested we do collaborations. We worked with professional songwriters -- Ron Sexsmith, Carrie Rodriguez -- on the last album [2012’s Suzie Cracks the Whip]. This album became an extension of that process of working with people we never worked with before. They appreciate you in ways you can’t appreciate yourself. The band took to it like ducks in water.”
Traveler’s manager, Lani Sarem at UD Factory based in Las Vegas, urged the band to be open to not just work with songwriters, but perform with them on the album as well. Plain White T’s, who pitch in “Nikkia’s Prom,” are now part of Sarem’s UD Factory stable.
“Lani had a wish list of people,” Popper explains. “We physically went to where they worked – we did a lot in Nashville and recorded in Dave Grohl’s studio in LA. The sounds were different. The album came out like Santana’s Supernatural.”
It’s an apt comparison, though Supernatural featured A-list stars like Rob Thomas and Wyclef Jean and went on to sweep the Grammys in 2000. But this could be Blues Traveler’s biggest success since Four, which produced two top 40 hits -- “Runaround” (No. 9) and “Hook” (No. 23). Already, a couple of songs -- the lead track “Hurricane” with 3OH!3 and *NSYNC’s JC Chasez, and the reggae-flavored “Vagabond Blues with Ramirez and Dirty Heads -- are receiving airplay on SiriusXM’s Jam On channel.
Born and raised in Princeton, N.J., Popper, Kinchla, Hill and their deceased original bassist Bobby Sheehan attended Princeton High in the mid-’80s. They actually played in the PHS Studio Band that’s the focus of the Oscar-nominated film, Whiplash. Anthony Biancosino, known to students as “Dr. B,” was the instructor at the time. In the movie, he’s played by J.K. Simmons, whose portrayal as a no-nonsense screamer earned Oscar, Golden Globe and Spirit awards as Best Supporting Actor. But Popper doesn’t recall Dr. B berating his students like he does in the movie, especially Miles Teller who plays the drummer in the band.
“Well, he was little rough on Brendan,” he says about Hill. “He did yell at him. But not quite like in the movie.”
Biancosino died in 2003, the same year Traveler’s Truth Be Told album was released. The band now consists of the Core Three, plus Kinchla’s brother Tad on bass and Ben Wilson on keyboards.
During the band’s heyday, Popper conceived the HORDE Tour, which began in 1991 and crisscrossed the country for seven summers. The first year featured a who’s who of original jam bands -- Traveler, Spin Doctors, Widespread Panic and headliner Phish -- and succeeding tours included everyone from the Black Crowes to Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers. Constantly asked if there are any plans to revive the HORDE Tour, the band has always left the door open. In fact, this summer Traveler will join up with 311 for a one-off HORDE show on July 9 at the Pine Knob ski area near Clarkston, Mich.
“We’re adding new acts to the bill every day and it’s going to be great,” Popper confides with a dose of his old swagger. “I’m bringing my sword!”
----------
MORE ABOUT
By Loud&Proud Records.com
After selling millions of records and logging thousands of miles on the road, GRAMMY award-winning band Blues Traveler continue to chart new musical directions evident on their upcoming record Blow Up The Moon. A clever collaboration between various artists, Blow Up The Moon sees Blues Traveler keep an open-minded perspective on making music and enlists an eclectic mix of songwriters influenced by the band’s remarkable 25+ year career.
Blow Up the Moon is the first collaborative album that Blues Traveler has ever made. Prior to these sessions, it was rare for the band to have someone else perform on their songs and even more rare to have anyone outside the band write with them. This process was a unique and successful experience for each of these artists who each found new depths and energy in their writing and performance. Blow Up The Moon is an exciting collaboration featuring a range of artists across the spectrum, representing country, pop, reggae and hip-hop.
“We wanted to experiment with co-writing since we usually try to do everything in-house, in this misguided homage to The Beatles,” says singer John Popper. Blow Up The Moon allowed Blues Traveler to expand their musical palette while holding the foundation of their distinct and explosive brand of rock. “We found quality writers to see what they could bring to us as a band, and also people who could see our strengths, something that’s hard to see for yourself.”
Blow Up The Moon features collaborating artists Thompson Square, Plain White T’s, 3OH!3, Dirty Heads and Rome Ramirez (Sublime), Hanson, Jewel, Secondhand Serenade, JC Chasez (*NSYNC), Bowling for Soup, New Hollow and Thomas Ian Nicholas.
The concept for Blow Up The Moon came about when the band was commemorating the 20th anniversary of their six-times platinum, award-winning and breakthrough album Four. “Once the idea was put out there, the thing took on a life of its own,” says guitarist Chan Kinchla. “We had so much fun reinvigorating our songwriting. This was an organic process that worked.”
“Nikkia’s Prom,” which Blues Traveler collaborated on with the Chicago pop-punk band Plain White T’s, was brought about through a Twitter conversation. While the groups had not met before, Popper and Plain White T’s vocalist Tom Higgenson bonded over the film Kill Bill. “Nikkia’s Prom” imagines what would happen if the daughter of Uma Thurman’s badass assassin showed up at her future high school dance. As drummer Brendan Hill said, “Like with all the bands we worked with, we just hit it off with them very easily. John and Tom holed themselves in a room and the rest of us just worked on key changes and rhythms. We all had the same kind of humor.”
Sharing humor and an open-minded perspective on music made the collaboration between Blues Traveler and electronic duo Sean Foreman and Nathaniel Motte, better known as 3OH!3, work so well. 3OH!3 are represented with two cuts on the disc, “Hurricane” and the title track which also includes contributions from J.C. Chasez (*NSYNC). Keyboardist Ben Wilson says Foreman, “is one of those real grinders who pored over every word all day until he felt we had a real coherent tune. And Sean played an instrument called a guitalele, which looks like a ukulele, but has six strings. When you hear it in this context it has a twangy sound that’s just awesome.”
Blues Traveler also had a relaxed time working with the California ska-punk band Dirty Heads on “Castaway” and “Vagabond,” which singer Rome Ramirez (from Sublime) produced. “Both bands just kicked back, handed some chords down and everybody added lyrics,” said bassist Tad Kinchla. “We would just learn the chords while we were all in the room together and played it the way we felt. It’s the luck of getting along with people.”
While Keifer and Shawna Thompson from the popular country team Thompson Square are a very different group than 3OH!3 or Dirty Heads, they were equally excited to work with Blues Traveler on “I Can Still Feel You” and “Matador.” The latter piece was written with Merle Haggard in mind and how he deserved more respect within the music industry. It’s a theme both groups know all too well, especially as they dare to challenge any imposed limitations. “They want to push boundaries,” Popper said of Thomson Square. “Generally, they stick to love songs, but here they wrote a philosophical statement about how the industry will embrace you and then turn on you. With them, we enabled each other to broaden the idea of genre and help it lose its meaning. Music is never supposed to be monogamous.”
A few stars that ascended at the time of Four also make guest appearances on Blow Up The Moon. Jewel lends her voice to “Hearts Are Still Awake,” and Thomas Ian Nicholas (star of American Pie), worked with Blues Traveler on “All The Way.” Hanson, the brothers who gave the world “Mmmbop,” join in on “Top Of The World.” Wilson said, “Hanson were huge fans of us back in the day – they were little kids then and 14 years later, here they are, grown men and had the tune almost the way they thought it should go, and we played it down until we got it right. They’re great singers and cool songwriters.”
Other collaborators on Blow Up The Moon include Secondhand Serenade who perform on “Darkness,” and co-wrote “Hearts Are Still Awake.” “Jackie’s Baby,” a song of soaring hooks and the collaboration with New Hollow, is according to Popper a new slant on the imagery in The Beatles’ “Rocky Raccoon.” Working with Bowling For Soup on “Waiting For You” and “I Know Right,” proves that Blues Traveler is in no danger of taking itself too seriously. That piece is a satirical look at online communication. “That title phrase just covers everything now,” Popper said. “It’s easy to talk to someone or beat up someone on Twitter, but try to come up with something new to say.”
Blues Traveler plan to spend all of 2015 on the road and are looking at more collaborative projects in the future since, as Wilson said, “There are a lot of different ways to write songs, and so many different ways to work with other people and arrive at the same place. It was reaffirming, but also instructive in teaching us how to say something simpler. When you listen to what came out of it, it’s something to be proud of.”
Loud & Proud Records will release Blow Up The Moon on both CD and vinyl in North America via RED Distribution (a division of Sony Music Entertainment) and in the rest of the world through earMUSIC. Loud & Proud see Blues Traveler as a relevant artist and the collaborations as exciting partnerships proving the band’s versatility.
----------
BIOGRAPHY/AMG
by William Ruhlmann
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 were 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 their third album, Save His Soul, which became the band's 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. In 2007, Blues Traveler released Cover Yourself, a collection of previous hits reworked with acoustic arrangements. The David Bianco-produced North Hollywood Shootout appeared from Verve Forecast in 2008. In March 2012, the band released 25, a two-disc set (one disc of hits and key tracks and a second disc of B-sides, demos, and rarities) celebrating the group's 25th anniversary. It was followed in June by Suzie Cracks the Whip, the group's 11th studio album, which was produced by S*A*M & Sluggo, and featured guest spots from Ron Sexsmith, Chris Barron (Spin Doctors), and Crystal Bowersox.
WEBSITE
TO THE TOP