Blues Traveler Visits WNEW Studio: Interview and Live Performance

If you attended Penn State in the early 90’s as I did, you lived on a steady diet of Blues Traveler music. They frequently played gigs all around the campus and I always showed up to see them bring down the house. Recently John Popper & Chandler Kinchla came in to the studio to talk about their new album North Hollywood Shootout. John & Chandler explain that the title is pretty self explanatory, Listen up:

While I was doing research for the interview, John posted some “thank you” notes for the album on their official website bluestraveler.com. In that section he thanks a dead coyote that he crushed. Since he took the time to dedicate the album to it, we had to know how it all went down – it’s a pretty cool desert story, Dig it:

The Beacons is definitely my favorite song on the album, and I had to find out what prompted the opening lyric “When our toasters finally come to kill us”, Listen up:

Now the guys were willing to do some songs from the new album acoustically just for us, and we were excited that this would be the first time they’ve ever played this new material in a stripped down setting. First up – The Beacons.

The next song was Borrowed Time, a powerful ballad about the passage of time and how important it is to cherish each moment – so cherish this video of them performing it.

The writing process was different this time around while they were constructing the album as they began to experiment more in the studio as Chandler explains, Listen up:

North Hollywood Shootout is a well constructed album filled with a little bit of everything you’ve come to expect from the guys – some heavy blues & funk, some air-punching rock and some slow ballads. With this album there isn’t as many extended jammy parts to it, but to really experience the full abilities of the band you need to see them live anyway – the album is there so you’ll have something to study until you’re singing along with them at their next show in your area. Here’s their tour dates so you don’t miss them:

10.29.08    Pittsburgh, PA
10.31.08    Cincinnati, OH
11.02.08    Minneapolis, MN
11.05.08    Dallas, TX
11.06.08    Houston, TX
11.08.08    Austin, TX
11.10.08    Tucson, AZ
11.11.08    San Diego, CA
11.13.08    Anaheim, CA
11.14.08    Las Vegas, NV
11.16.08    West Hollywood, CA
11.18.08    San Francisco, CA
11.19.08    Monterey, CA
11.21.08    Eugene, OR