All-Music
Guide
Bobby Sheehan
June 12, 1968--August 20, 1999
Blues Traveler
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 followup to Four,
Blues Traveler released the live double-album Live
from the Fall in the summer of 1996. Blues
Traveler returned in the summer of 1997 with its fifth studio album, Straight
on Till Morning. -- William
Ruhlmann, All-Music Guide
After attending the Berklee School of Music in Boston, Sheehan helped
found Blues Traveler back in 1987 in Princeton, New Jersey along with
vocalist John Popper, guitarist Chan Kinchla, and drummer Brendan Hill.
Sheehan played on all six of Blues Traveler's albums, including the
group's most recent effort, 1997's "Straight on Till Morning."
The bassist had recently been touring with guitarist John Mooney and was
working on his first solo album. Sheehan planned to reunite with the other
members of Blues Traveler in the fall to start pre-production work on the
band's new album. ~MTV
Blues Traveler
THERE were undoubtedly plenty of people who
decided they wanted to become musicians after
seeing the film The Blues Brothers, but probably
very few took that resolve quite as seriously as
John Popper. The Blues Traveler frontman was a
bit of a musical prodigy to begin with: his parents
noted his precocious ability to sing harmonies at
the age of three, so they soon enrolled him in cello
lessons (at age five) and piano lessons (at age
eight). Unfortunately, the young musician quickly
abandoned both instruments because he hated to
practice. When he tried guitar at age eleven, he
found his attention span for practicing wasn't any
longer, and he was dropped by his teacher after he
revealed that he was playing by ear instead of
learning to read music.
Popper first picked up the harmonica when he was
a teenager--he took to it immediately, especially
because he didn't have to take lessons (his
parents couldn't find a harmonica instructor). He
figured out the basics on his own and set about
learning how to play all the Blues Brothers' tunes
note for note. After showing off his harmonica
virtuosity during band practice one day while the
second-stringers were working on a rendition of
Thomas Dolby's "She Blinded Me With Science"
(and while he was supposed to be playing his
meager fourth-trumpet solo, incidentally), Popper
became the first official harmonica player in the
history of the school band. From then on, he was
known throughout the hallways as that "harmonica
guy."
The hallways of that same Princeton, New Jersey,
high school served as the meeting place for all of
the future members of Blues Traveler. Popper and
drummer Brendan Hill first hooked up in 1983; they
were joined by guitarist Chan Kinchla in 1986, and
bassist Bobby Sheehan in 1987. Out of their
shared fascination with the Blues Brothers was
born a worthy name by which to call themselves--
the Blues Band. Following graduation, all of the
bandmates, (except Kinchla, who attended N.Y.U.)
enrolled in the jazz program at New York's New
School for Social Research. The New School was
just what Popper et al. needed to get their act
together: not only did they have the use of free
rehearsal space, but the curriculum taught them
how to get gigs. They learned a little too
well--before long, they had lined up so many gigs
that there wasn't any time left for school, so they
all dropped out of the program.
Newly baptized as Blues Traveler, the band signed
a record deal with A&M in 1989, and released their
self-titled debut album later that same year.
Travelers & Thieves followed in 1991. Their next
album, Save His Soul (1993), was marred by a
near-tragedy. Twelve days into recording sessions
on the album, Popper was riding his motorcycle in
the remote area of Louisiana where the studio was
located when a turning car plowed into him. He
sustained a broken arm, leg, and hip and had to
endure months of rehabilitation in a wheelchair.
Injuries aside, the band resumed recording after
only a single month's break; and not even the fact
that he was confined to a wheelchair could keep
Popper off the road after Save His Soul was
released.
Throughout their early years, Blues Traveler built
its reputation and its fan base by touring
constantly, averaging more than 250 shows a year.
Despite a lack of any radio or MTV coverage, the
band secured a devoted following by word of mouth
alone. The grapevine method worked well: the band
managed to sell hundreds of thousands of copies
of each of its first three releases, although none of
the albums quite achieved gold status (sales of
500,000). That all changed with the release of
1994's four; the album spawned two Top 10
singles, "Run-around" and "Hook," and went on to
sell over six million copies. Apart from the healthy
boost in record sales, the band's profile was also
rising due to the ever-growing popularity of the
HORDE (Horizons of Rock Developing Everywhere)
Tour, which Popper had organized in 1992 after the
band failed to get a support slot on a major tour.
HORDE has become a summertime staple for
concertgoers--it was the fourth-biggest grossing
tour of summer of 1996--and as it grows, so does
its ability to attract some of the biggest names in
rock; over the years, Phish, Spin Doctors, the
Black Crowes, Neil Young, Beck, Sheryl Crow,
and Dave Matthews Band have all played the
traveling summer fest.
On their rise to the lofty ranks of the multi-
platinum, the members of Blues Traveler have
achieved some significant career milestones: they
reached their goal of having played in all fifty states
in December 1995; they guest-starred on an
episode of Roseanne in 1995; they have appeared
on Late Night With David Letterman more than any
other band in the history of the show; and they
sold out Madison Square Garden for their annual
New Year's Eve show in December 1996.
Somehow, during all that excitement, they
managed to compile tracks for a two-CD live set
called Live From the Fall, which was released in
1996.
The year 1997 promises to bring the New Jersey
four back to their boyhood roots. Earlier this year,
Blues Traveler released its fifth album, Straight on
Till Morning. In September, Popper and company
open the first stadium dates for their boyhood
idols, the Rolling Stones, on the Stones' Bridges to
Babylon tour. And to bring things back full circle to
their Blues Band days, they will appear in the
upcoming sequel to The Blues Brothers.
Copyright ©1999 ABC News Internet Ventures. All rights
reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast,
rewritten or redistributed in any form. Please click here for legal
restrictions and terms of use applicable to this site. Use of this
site signifies your agreement to the terms of use. |
