The members of Blues Traveler started playing together when they were kids in high school in Princeton, N.J.
Now, 23 years later, they try to arrange their touring schedule to spend more time with their own kids. And that, says drummer Brendan Hill, is one of the things that has helped the jam band last so long.
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“Three of us have kids now, so we have very open communication about the different needs we all have,” said Hill. “If we’ve been touring for six months and somebody needs to go home for a kid’s birthday, we understand.”
Another reason for the band’s longevity, Hill says, is staying true to its jam-band and improv roots. Instead of playing the same songs the same way every night, Blues Traveler has a setlist of about 120 original songs. And they pride themselves on never playing the same song the same way twice.
So people who head out to see Blues Traveler Wednesday at The Landing at Pine Point in Scarborough can expect an eclectic show.
“We’ll always play ‘Run-Around’ and ‘But Anyway,’ songs people heard on the radio,” said Hill. “But other than that, we leave it open for whoever (among the members) wants to decide what to play.”
When Blues Traveler formed, the members were all fans of the Grateful Dead, the best-known rock jam band, as well as classic rock acts such as The Allman Brothers Band and Jimi Hendrix.
Hill and singer/harmonica player John Popper both attended The New School in New York City, where they studied jazz and improv. So that affected the band’s style too.
Plus, not many rock bands have a harmonica player as a frontman.
“John just had a different approach. He wanted to do for the harmonica what Hendrix did for the guitar,” said Hill. “That was a big part of our sound.”
Popper had health struggles related to his weight early on in his career, but Hill said he’s now healthy. In fact, Popper’s struggles over the years have prompted all the band members to eat better and keep health in mind, Hill said.
“He looks good and he feels good, but being on the road is not the healthiest eating environment,” Hill said. “I think we had all fallen into a bad eating pattern back in the day. Now we try to eat healthier, we ask the catering company not to have lasagna every day, things like that.”
Blues Traveler gravitated toward other jam-minded bands, such as Phish and Spin Doctors, and used friendships with them to form the popular H.O.R.D.E. Festival as an alternative to mainstream rock festivals. H.O.R.D.E. ran from 1992 to 1998.
“I think we were different when we came out (in the early 1990s) because there was a lot of guitar-driven rock and we had a harmonica frontman,” said Hill. “Plus we played our songs in different ways all the time, which I think kept people coming back, because they didn’t know what was going to happen.”
And although times have changed, Hill said that ability to be unpredictable is still at the core of the band.
“We started off as friends, and learned to play together, so we just want to keep it fun,” he said.
Staff Writer Ray Routhier can be contacted at 791-6454 or at:
rrouthier@pressherald.com
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