The Concept Album
and
How It Came to (not) Be


Back on 7-3-96, the band debuted a 22-minute, 6-movement song entitled "Traveler Suite". Immediately after its playing, the whole BT community was abuzz about this song - it was a completely new musical direction for the band, they'd never played anything with distinct movements, and it really seemed to be quite daring for them to bust it out at such a high-profile show. It was played ten times or so during the HORDE and Fall tour in '96, but then didn't make an appearance at all in 1997 or the first half of 1998.

In the meantime, John had bandied about the idea of doing a completely harpless album as a way of breaking out of the definition of Blues Traveler as a band fronted by an incredible harp player. The Suite itself makes references to the Sun and the Storm, later revealed to be one of Aesop's fables, wherein the Sun and the Storm take turns trying to get a traveler to remove his overcoat. The Storm rages with all its might but it just makes the traveler clench his overcoat to himself tighter. The Sun comes out, shines brightly, and the traveler, welcoming the warmth, takes it off of his own accord.

In September of 1997, John played a solo show at the Sidewalk Cafe in NYC, where he broke out a tune that he called "Growing in Dirt", and announced that it would be on the next album. John and Bob also played a benefit show in May of 1997 where they played a song called "The Way". It made its full-fledged band debut later that fall, and this too was to be added to the album.

Finally, 8 of the supposed 14 tunes came out at the Red Rocks shows in 1998; on 7-3-98 they played Intro>The Way, The Light In Her Eyes, Decision of the Skies, and The Heavens Get Pissed. The day after, they debuted Her & Me, The Path, and brought back Traveler Suite. A ninth song premiered a month later, entitled Who Is This? Most of them continued to be played live through the fall, but a few were not repeated until one day in November of 1998.

Originally, the band had never intended to play the full album live. But after some letters from the fans got through asking for more varied setlists, the band responded by scheduling a "very special show" at the Trump Marina in Atlantic City, NJ. Everyone in presence got the chance to witness 9 of the 14 songs from this album in order as the band intended. The remaining tunes [discovered on a 'band play list' during the 1998 Fall tour] include Caught in a Downpour, Chasing Clouds, The Eyes that Blind, Hello Again, and The Sun and the North Wind. The last of these was actually slated to be played between Decision and Heavens during the 11-25-98 show but was scratched from the setlist.

The album was to be recorded in 1999, but the band took the first six months off from all Blues Traveler-related things. John recorded his solo album Zygote [which ended up including "Growing in Dirt"] and then toured behind it in the fall. There's no way of knowing if they were planning more songs for Red Rocks '99, but John's emergency angioplasty halted those plans, and with Bob's passing that August, the idea for a complete, coherent concept album was scrapped altogether.

When Tad Kinchla and Ben Wilson were welcomed to the Blues Traveler fold later that year, the first thing the band did was reexamine their catalog and figure out songs that the new band members would "work" on. In the process, while jamming out in the studio, some rough cuts were laid down on four songs originally intended for this concept album: 12 Swords (which later made its first live appearance in nearly nine years, in July of 2000), Traveler Suite, The Sun & The Storm (which to this day has not been played live) and The Path, Upon the band's separation from Interscope Records and the A&M label, the band released these four songs as mp3's via their web site later that year, a collection entitled Decisions of the Sky: A Traveler's Tale of Sun And Storm. The Way and Decision Of The Skies were eventually relased as full-fledged tracks on Bridge.