Blues Traveler  is an American rock band formed in Princeton, New Jersey in 1987.  The band’s music covers a variety of genres, including blues rock, psychedelic rock, folk rock, soul, and Southern rock.  It is known for extensive use of segues in their live performances, and was considered a key part of the re-emerging jam band scene of the 1990s, spearheading the H.O.R.D.E. touring music festival.  While Blues Traveler is best known among fans for their improvisational live shows, the general public is most familiar with the group from their Top 40 singles “Run-Around” and “Hook”.  (More from Wikipedia)

 

Still, buying a box of albums even at a good price is something that I rarely do.  I like to see what I am buying and make individual decisions.  I was once at a flea market down here years ago where a guy was about to close down his stand.  I had picked out a handful of CD’s already – two by the Cruzados, Terence Trent d’Arby, Shakespear’s Sister, Blues Traveler, David Cassidy (I had heard that this teen idol used to sing R&B songs during breaks in the filming of The Partridge Family, so I was going to see if any of that made it to disc) – when the man said, “I’ll sell you the whole rack for $35”.  I figure that I had already picked out over $20 worth, so I said yes. 

 

This was quite a while back – pre-Katrina for sure, and probably close to 15 years ago – but I mail-order most of the CD’s that I buy (usually it is vinyl all the way when I am in record stores), so I can still pick out with some degree of certainty which CD’s I got in that box.  I might be wrong about some of them (Terence Trent d’Arby and Blues Traveler might have been different purchases), but it still makes a good story with the CD’s that I have laid out in the following sections.  Maybe some of my readers will be less afraid to take a chance on a purchase also after seeing what I found that day.

 

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Blues Traveler, Four – Front man John Popper has the vocal and harmonica chops to put this blues-rock jam band into the charts over a 25-year period.  This 1994 album had slow sales at first until the opening track “Run-Around” became the band’s biggest hit song, peaking at #8.  The song also won a Grammy in 1995.

 

(December 2015)