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News Archive
2002 Headlines 2001 Headlines 2000 Headlines 1999 Headlines 1998 Headlines 1997 Headlines 1996 Headlines 1995 Headlines courtesy of Misha Rutman's now-defunct web site. |
August 26th, 2003 - Old favorites making a comeback as summer tour winds down; Some fall tour locations leaked As the 2003 summer tour draws to a close - the final show is expected to be a true "Wobbling Surfer" at the Mandalay Beach in Las Vegas - it has become clear that the band is serious about dusting off some of the older tunes and bringing them back into the rotation. In addition to the somewhat expected comebacks of "Conquer Me" (winner of an online poll run my friends of the band) and "Support Your Local Emperor" (winner of the annual blackcat Chant Poll), the band has also brought back tunes such as "The Best Part" (last played in 2001), "Yours" (last played in 1999) and "Great Big World" (last played in 1998). Some underplayed and recently-resurrected tunes of late are also staying in the rotation, as the likes of "Gotta Get Mean", "Pretty Angry", "The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly" and "Trina Magna" have seen regular play alongside the regular staples and material off of Truth Be Told.In a recent post to the new "Band Road Notes" section of the official site, guitarist Chan Kinchla revealed that the band is planning on playing at New York City's Beacon Theater this fall, as well as Boston's Orpheum Theatre. This would mark a departure from the band's typical New York haunts of Roseland Ballroom and Irving Plaza; all indications point to this being the first time the band will have played the Beacon if these dates do in fact pan out. It would also mark their first return to the Orpheum since a two-night stand for Halloween 1997. At present no dates for these shows have been announced, though several other shows have been lined up as of the time of this writing. The earliest appears to be a motorcycle rally in Fayettesville, AR on October 3rd, followed by a return to the Music Harvest in Live Oak, FL, where they played in the fall of 2001. The third confirmed date for this fall is the Texas State Fair on October 18th. As with all dates, they are not official until confirmed by BT management and the official web site, but links to event and ticket information are available in this site's Tour Dates area. July 31st, 2003 - Welcome to the new BluesTraveler.net! We've been hard at work behind the scenes for almost a year, sorting, organizing and standardizing our information to make it more sensible, more accessible, and more useful to you, the fans who have provided the lion's share of the information and files to begin with. We are proud to say that after ten years of Blues Traveler presence on the Internet, we have finally been able to make our plans of a fully searchable BT database come to light!July 21st, 2003 - Letterman appearance upcoming; Album pre-order available; Southwest dates added to schedule Sources have confirmed that the band will be making their seventeenth appearance on Letterman this week; the band will visit the Ed Sullivan Theater this Wednesday, July 23rd. They are expected to play the first single off of Truth Be Told, "Let Her & Let Go". As always, the show airs at 11:30pm EDT on your local CBS affiliate; the band will probably not go on until close to 12:20 but John will likely sit in all night with the CBS Orchestra, as is his custom.Blues Traveler has announced that their new album is now available for pre-order through their online distributor of choice, MusicToday. By ordering through the online store, fans will also get a limited edition Truth Be Told keychain. There is also a pre-order available through amazon.com where purchasers can get an immediate stream of the entire album to their computer. However, this download is limited to users of PC-compatible computers. View the link above for more details. The tour schedule is beginning to flesh out for later in August; the official site has recently announced shows in Poughkeepsie, NY; Norfolk, VA and New Orleans as well as a pair of shows in the southwest, in Albuquerque, NM and Tempe, AZ. It will no doubt fill in even a little more in the coming weeks as the record release buzz continues to build. July 8th, 2003 - Red Rocks shows/DVD news; Asbury Park show IS a go/Tour news Blues Traveler celebrated their 11th Independence Day bash at Red Rocks Amphitheatre over the weekend, culminating with a full-fledged DVD shoot the night of the 4th. Among the highlights of the two nights were the first "Conquer Me" since November of 1996 and the first "Support Your Local Emperor" - the winner of this year's netter Chant Poll - since November of 1998. With the exception of two Truth Be Told numbers played during Friday's encore, the two sets featured completely different songs and the new material sounded much stronger and more solid than last year's renditions.John and Chan were everywhere to be seen during the week - two days prior to their appearance at Joey Harrington's fundraiser on June 26th, the pair did an in-store appearance at Best Buy in Clackamas, OR as well as appearing on Portland's KINK-FM a day later. They repeated the feat in Denver at Twist and Shout Records, arriving late because of a similar engagement at Boulder's KBCO-FM. They made an additional appearance with old friends Leftover Salmon, guesting on "Other Side" and "Down In The Valley" during their opening set. Salmon reciprocated by lending Drew Emmitt, Bill McKay and Noam Pikelny to a 21-minute version of "Mountain Cry" to close the night on the 3rd. On the 4th, management-mates Shurman kicked off the festivities, followed by an alternately lively and heartfelt set from a Melody Maker-less Ziggy Marley. Then the lights went up, the booms swung into place, and the crowd cheered for nearly three hours straight as seven separate cameras filmed the show in its entirety for an upcoming HDNet broadcast (in November) and a DVD (tentatively scheduled for later this year). The later summer tour continues to be in a state of flux; the previously-canceled Stone Pony show in Asbury Park is now back on due to a change of heart from the band - the offer of a show in their home state of New Jersey turned out to be too much to resist, and tickets are now back on sale for the August 2nd date through MusicToday and TicketMaster at a reduced rate of $25 (instead of the original $30). Opening this date - as well as much of late July and early August - is the Ben Taylor Band. The show originally scheduled for August 8th at Northampton, MA's Calvin Theatre has been shifted to the 6th, presumably to accommodate a new date in Colorado, of all places. Blues Traveler has been tapped to play the Triple A Summit for the Radio & Record Industries' annual bash; the date is scheduled for Boulder's Fox Theatre on August 9th. According to Dave Matthews Band fan uber-site nancies.org (Matthews will be playing a solo set on the 6th), tickets for at least the first night go on sale Sunday, July 12th for $35 through the venue's box office, and it would logically follow that other nights will go on sale at the same time for a similar price. More info will be posted here as it becomes available. June 26th, 2003 - Asbury Park show is a no go; Billboard article reveals a possible new track Due to an employee at MusicToday's office jumping the gun, the Asbury Park ticket sales were posted prior to approval from the band, who had just received the offer last Friday. This show will not be happening, and refunds for tickets purchased should be coming shortly, including service fees. If you do not get your service charges refunded, please email tix@musictoday.com and make your voice heard. The band is very interested in a New Jersey date but nothing has been confirmed yet for that date or any other date this summer. In other news, an article on Billboard.com cites a track titled "Partner in Crime" which has been in rotation on the most recent tour dates, but does not appear on the track listing available on allmusic.com and mtv.com. Logic would dictate that the band only be playing new material that will be released, but it is unknown how "Partner in Crime" will fit into the track listing for Truth Be Told. The article also mentions "This Ache" and "Can't Get Free" (sic) and lists the band's tour dates as released thus far. A final tidbit from the article reveals that according to Nielsen Soundscan, Bridge has sold a mere 137,000 copies to date.June 24th, 2003 - Track listing now available for Truth Be Told Thanks to allmusic.com, the track listing is now available for Blues Traveler's latest album, due out August 5th. The cover art is also posted at the above link as well.
June 23rd, 2003 - John Popper & Chan Kinchla to sign autographs before Portland show; New Jersey show added From Business Wire by way of Audrey Jones:
In other news, Blues Traveler will be returning to their home state for the first time since last October. The Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ, has announced an outdoor show on August 2nd, to be played in the lot outside the venue. Tickets are $30 and are on sale now through the Stone Pony's ticketing service at musictoday.com. June 18th, 2003 - More Bonnaroo news; Dates added to summer tour; New album release date Black-cat list member Brian Casiello just returned from Bonnaroo with the newest piece of Blues Traveler memorabilia - a two-disc set handed out to fans as they entered the gates. The track listing is as follows:Disc 1 The setlist for the moe. show with John Popper guesting has now been posted here; old friend Warren Haynes also guested with the band though he was not on the stage at the same time as John. Dates continue to stream in for the summer tour - added over the last couple of weeks are two shows in Oklahoma (Tulsa and Oklahoma City) shortly after the Red Rocks shows, a run through the midwest covering St. Louis, Kansas City and up into Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, and the three newest dates in Akwesasne, NY, Elmira, NY and Northampton, MA. The Northampton date now appears to be at the beginning of a post-album release run in the northeast - contrary to previous reports from John Popper himself, the album release has been moved to August 5th. This bodes well for more dates in early to mid-August; stay tuned here for the latest/ June 17th, 2003 - Additions to Harp-N-Soul Raffle; Popper jams at Bonnaroo; Chant Poll has a new winner From Audrey Jones and the Harp-N-Soul raffle:Black Cat Spirit of Harp-n-Soul raffle is now accepting instrument donations which will be made to Little Kids Rock (www.littlekidsrocks.org). Little Kids Rock provides free music classes and musical instruments to children in our public elementary schools. Their unique program focuses on popular music styles such as rock, funk, blues, rap, and hip-hop. The curriculum reflects the diverse cultural backgrounds of the students. Participating students also compose, perform and record their own music. Donated instruments will be quickly put in the hands of their students and/or auctioned off to raise funds to purchase basic instruments for the students.In a separate announcement, Audrey also passed along the news that she had created a flyer to be passed out at shows on the summer tour to help spread word of the raffle, as well as the fact that the person making the largest donation to the raffle will win an acoustic guitar signed by John, Chan, and Brendan. For more information on the flyer or the guitar, please see the Harp-N-Soul Raffle web site. In more list news, Marc Sykes announced the Chant Poll results on the blackcat list early this morning. We have a winner! OK, I'm sure everyone is staying up late to sit by their computers for this one, so here you go, each song with total points first, and first-place votes in parentheses:Time to get out your chanting lungs and yell for Emperor!SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL EMPEROR 134 (19) Conquer Me 89 (9) Love of My Life 82 (8) Escaping 81 (6) Circle 79 (9) In other news, John took some time after the band's recent shows in Tennessee to stop by Bonnaroo and jam with moe. on Sunday, in a reprise of last year's pre-USO Tour appearances. A setlist has yet to be posted, but one will be when it is available. It is not known if John sat in with other bands. Finally, according to the Denver Post, the 4th of July show from Red Rocks will be broadcast on Denver-based HDNet, a network for consumers with HDTV sets and cable or satellite connections. Click the link above for the whole article. June 11th, 2003 - Second Annual Black-Cat Spirit of Harp-N-Soul Raffle announced From the blackcat list:
June 4th, 2003 - Additional Red Rocks opener confirmed; Partial track listing and cover for Truth be Told available According to ClearChannel's latest mailer, and confirmed by a link on their web site, Ziggy Marley has been confirmed as an opener at the July 4th Red Rocks show. The official site confirms this and also adds the alt-country Los Angeles quarter Shurman. In related news, Howie Day management has reportedly said that a return engagement by the singer/songwriter is not officially confirmed yet, but it is still not entirely out of the realm of possibility, given the band's tendency to have multiple openers on the 4th at least - a practice dating from 1996 and continuing in 1998 as well as the past three years. Thanks to some sleuthing by black-cat list members Marc Sykes and Dave Rogers, BT.Net has learned no fewer than nine tracks confirmed to be on Truth Be Told, hitting stores on July 22nd. The songs, in no particular order:
June 3rd, 2003 - Tour kicks off in style with four new tunes; New album info and rumors; Additional tour dates surface The band kicked off their latest tour on May 31st at Pensacola's Springfest and continued their mini-Florida run with a two-night stand at Jacksonville Beach's Free Bird Cafe. At the former gig, the band introduced the song previously known as "I'll Come Around" (debuted at the Lake Tahoe gigs) under a new title, "Eventually". John Popper also guested with Oteil & the Peacemakers, and that band's namesake, bassist Oteil Burbridge, repaid the favor by joining Blues Traveler onstage for an encore of the Fiji Mariners staple "Time Is Free", alongside Col. Bruce Hampton and Gov't Mule's Warren Haynes. At Jacksonville Beach, three more songs made their debut - "Let Her & Let Go", "Partner In Crime" and "Unable To Get Free", as well as a retooled version of "Sweet & Broken". This brings to thirteen the list of songs debuted since the spring of 2002, with perhaps a few more set to debut over the coming weeks. The album, entitled Truth Be Told, is set to be released on July 22nd, according to comments made by John at the May 31st show. In related news, the mystery surrounding the album's label seems to have been resolved - Britain-based Sanctuary Records has quietly released a partial tour schedule for "Blues Traveller" on their web site, and several other links confirm this. Sanctuary and its various labels was originally most well-known for its lineup of classic rock bands - KISS, Judas Priest and Lynyrd Skynyrd among them - but of late has released albums by a number American acts, including H.O.R.D.E. alums Widespread Panic, the Allman Brothers Band, and Joan Osborne. The latest group of tour dates released includes several festival dates, including returns to Milwaukee's Summerfest on June 29th and Muskegon's Summer Celebration on June 30th; a showing at Baltimore's Artscape on July 25th, the Rising Sun Music Fest in Mariaville, NY on August 7th and Jerry's Birthday Bash on August 13th in West Virginia. Also announced recently was a chance to see an intimate John Popper and Chan Kinchla show on June 26th at the Crystal Ballroom; this show is a Sports Dream Foundation benefit hosted by Detroit Lions quarterback Joey Harrington. There is also the possibility that John will jam with Jason Mraz and Harrington on Jimmy Kimmel Live that evening, though it has yet to be confirmed. Many more dates are still to be announced, so keep an eye on the tour page! May 20th, 2003 - Red Rocks openers confirmed; Many new dates announced According to Red Rocks Amphitheatre's web site, redrocksonline.com, Howie Day has officially been tapped as the opener for this year's July 4th show. This will be his second consecutive Red Rocks opening slot, as he also filled the bill last year with G. Love & Special Sauce. Leftover Salmon will still be opening on July 3rd, but had to turn down a reprise of their 1997 opener appearances due to prior commitments at a festival in Minnesota. Several new dates have been announced since the last news update. In addition to the typical slate of festivals and fairs (including a return to Mad Booking's series, now scheduled for Nashville, Atlanta and Memphis), the band will also be playing several smaller venues in Florida (the Freebird Cafe in Jacksonville Beach and Jannus Landing in St. Petersburg), Virginia (the Wolf Trap in Vienna and Innsbrook Pavilion in Glen Allen), Massachusetts (the Cape Cod Melody Tent in Hyannis), and Pennsylvania (Shawnee Mountain in Shawnee-on-Delaware). The band will also return to the casino circuit for a few shows, including Prairie's Edge in Minnesota, the Ho-Chunk in Wisconsin, and the Mandalay in Las Vegas. Many tour dates have yet to be announced, so stay tuned to the tour page for the latest updates. April 20th, 2003 - Four Years ago today... ...a website was born. It was four years ago today that an idea came to fruition and BluesTraveler.Net was launched. After 6 months of preparation, the original BluesTraveler.Net team of Craig Davis and Jason Millner met their goal of 4/20 and the site was made public. A Blues Traveler website, for the fans, with everything we could think of - or at least get our hands on at the time - all in one place. Incorporating websites from Misha Rutman, as well as the Groovin@the.show site and many others, we created a website that fans could go to in order to keep up to date with Blues Traveler information. In doing so, we also created what could be considered the most comprehensive museum of Blues Traveler photos, memorabilia and more! A short while later, the BluesTraveler.Net team was strengthened with the addition of the Daves. Dave Mallick brought his wealth of BT knowledge and seemingly 36 hour days, while Dave Bernreuther brought his graphical abilities and ideas. Since the site was originally launched, it has grown from 40Mb to over 300Mb! This is in direct relation to the amount of support we have recieved from each and every one of you. For each person who has emailed us photos or scanned ticket stubs, or emailed us a setlist from a show they attended, we are grateful. Many things have changed since 4/20/99. We lost a friend in Bobby, but gained two more in Ben & Tad. We saw the John Popper Band and other side projects such as Stolen Ogre, the Frogwings and others. The band has grown musically. We have all grown with them. In keeping with the constant growth and evolution of the band, we too, will be growing and evolving. With the help of Joe Catanese and Adam Quay (among others), we are working toward developing a new BluesTraveler.Net! You may have already seen the new design in the recently launched Forever FOB section. If you haven't already done so, take a look and let us know what you think. This website is nothing without you - the fans. We want to continue to provide the most informative Blues Traveler website on the net. We haven't set an official date for the relaunch, but will keep you all updated on our status. Thanks to all of you for four fucking excellent years! Sincerely, April 14th, 2003 - New survey on-line; Beginnings of tour announced; John Popper arrested in Texas for marijuana possession Some close friends of the band have assembled a thorough survey designed to help gather important information on the band's fan base. To sweeten the pot a little bit, the band is offering two VIP tickets to the show of your choice to one lucky survey-taker. The results of the survey will be used to help the band decide how to better serve its fans in the future, so take a few minutes and fill it out, if you're so inclined. Within hours of the announcement below, several more dates had been announced for Blues Traveler's summer tour. As predicted, the tour looks like it will start in late May with dates in the south, continue into June (most dates yet to be determined) and then run through Red Rocks in July and into August. While several new dates are out now, the rest of the tour schedule should flesh out over the next few weeks. Keep checking back at the tour dates page to find out when the band will be hitting your town. In the "bad news travels fast" category, it has been confirmed that John Popper was arrested in Texas for possession of less than two ounces of marijuana. As reported by the New York Post's Page Six: Popper poppedAs usual, the Smoking Gun (www.thesmokinggun.com) was on the case, digging up a mug shot only hours after the story broke. April 9th, 2003 - New album title announced; Red Rocks officially confirmed & rumored opener info; Several new dates made public The inimitable Gina Z announced today through bluestraveler.com that the band's latest studio effort would be entitled Truth Be Told. Slated for an early July release, a track listing is not yet available, but contenders for the tracks include the following songs, all of which made their debut in 2002 or 2003:
Also included in the announcement was a confirmation of the band's return to Red Rocks for two shows, on July 3rd and 4th. The venue's web site, redrocksonline.com also confirmed that H.O.R.D.E. alum Leftover Salmon will reprise its 1997 Red Rocks opening slot on July 3rd before heading up to Minnesota. While no announcement has been made for July 4th, rumors are swirling that Ziggy Marley, sans his Melody Makers, is in the running for the spot. Finally, a few more dates have leaked out since the last news entry - the band will return for a third straight year to the Cape Cod Melody Tent in Hyannis, MA, and will also be making its second yearly appearance at Highland Park, Illinois' Ravinia Festival Pavilion. April 3rd, 2003 - Red Rocks shows slated for July 3rd and 4th; Blues Traveler to appear on new Red Rocks benefit compilation; Album recording finished; New section launched Sources have communicated to BluesTraveler.net staff that the Red Rocks tradition will continue for its tenth year out of the past eleven when Blues Traveler returns to Morrison, Colorado on July 3rd and 4th of this year. On-sale dates and opener information are still to be announced, but rumors are floating that some H.O.R.D.E. alumni are in the running for the opening slots. In the meantime, a pair of dates have leaked out already; on May 31st the band will headline the second day of Pensacola's SpringFest 2003, and July 26th will see the band make a third return engagement to the Wolf Trap in Vienna, Virginia, who announced their summer schedule last week. Tickets for both shows go on sale this weekend. At the present time, plans call for Blues Traveler to return to the road in late May and tour until the end of August. In related Red Rocks news, a new benefit CD is coming out on April 19th entitled "Red Rocks - Carved in Stone", and Blues Traveler makes an appearance on track 8 with a live version of Alone recorded at Red Rocks. The album, which features a killer lineup of Red Rocks recordings over the last ten years, will benefit the Preserve the Rocks Fund, designed to preserve and provide for the repair of Red Rocks Amphitheatre. A full track listing can be seen on KBCO's web site. The CD can be purchased through KBCO, at Best Buy locations in Colorado, or online at BestBuy.com. The recording work is all but done on Blues Traveler's seventh studio album, and a release date is tentatively set for late summer, according to sources close to the band. No title or track listing has been released as of yet, but the album is expected to consist of songs making their debut during the 2002 summer and fall tours, as well as some new material written in studio sessions over the few months since the band went off the road. More information will be posted here as it becomes available. Finally, in news related to our site, we are proud to present two things at once - the Forever FOB section as well as a sneak peek at the new look of our web site. Forever FOB is a section dedicated to the memory of Blues Traveler bassist Bob Sheehan and contains personal stories from several fans who had the chance to meet and interact with him during his time with Blues Traveler. It is our hope that this section will grow as more people have a chance to read the anecdotes and contribute their own. Feel free to browse what others have chosen to share with us and send in your own if you are so inclined. Feedback on the "new look" is also welcome - work is continuing on other areas which will be released and connected as they are ready for public consumption! February 13th, 2003 - Tahoe shows debut two new songs; Band is now back in the studio In their third annual "winter wonderland" shows in Nevada two weeks ago, the band officially kicked off 2003 with a pair of one-set shows to set the tone. Two new songs were debuted: "Dead Man Walking" and "I'll Come Around", and more promising is that other than the newest tunes, not a single song was repeated from night to night. The band is presently heading back into the studio to lay down tracks for their seventh studio album. The producer of choice this time around is Don Gehman, perhaps most well-known for his work with John (Cougar) Mellencamp and Hootie & the Blowfish. Reports are that the band will record all of the new songs that were played on last year's tour, as well as recording as many completely new tunes, including some that are still in the writing process. At this time there is no schedule for release, but given John's travels to Italy with Jono Manson in March, at least rough cuts should be done by then. In the meantime, work continues behind the scenes here at BluesTraveler.net. While many areas have gone without updating for quite some time, we finally have a core of dedicated and knowledgeable people working on making this site a leaner, meaner, database-driven machine. Much like with the new album, there's no schedule in place, but we're drawing closer by the day! January 13th, 2003 - Happy New Year! What's in store for 2003? In what was reportedly one of their high points as far as musical moments go, Blues Traveler brought the curtain down on 2002 with an end-of-tour show at the Roseland Theater in Portland, Oregon. The show featured a cavalcade of local friends, from former dreamspeak member Matt Zekala to current Stolen Ogre members Michael McMorrow and David Simpson to longtime friend and opening band lead singer Chris Stills. But the musical friendship grew to a fever pitch when local legend Ike Willis - he of Frank Zappa's band - sat in on a lengthy rendition of "Go Outside & Drive". Said one fan in attendance: "You could literally see the guys in the band staring with their mouths open when Ike soloed." The final official band-related event of the year actually lent some symmetry to 2002 - exactly as John had played the first concert of the year solo at a benefit show (01/19/02 in Washington DC), he ended it by playing a solo set at a benefit show in New York City. The five-song set was played at an exhibition of Tim Vega's art, in celebration of his life at the HERE Arts Center. Some of the artwork can be seen here, courtesy of Cindy Mast. So what does 2003 hold for the band? They have already unofficially kicked off the 2003 tour with a show at the Florida governor's inaugural ball last week; the band played a full show on January 6th and John played the Star-Spangled Banner at the actual inauguration. Although they have not yet been confirmed on the official site, Blues Traveler will be returning to Lake Tahoe to play a couple of "kicking off the rust" shows on January 31st and February 1st. At the moment, the band is in California for a couple weeks of studio time, and it is expected that they will head back into the studio afterwards to work on their next album. The individual band members also have their own projects to keep them busy in the meantime until they get back out on the road - according to friend Jono Manson's web site, John will be joining Jono for a few dates in Europe, still to be announced. Brendan will likely be joining Stolen Ogre in the studio for some additional post-production work on Ogre's new album, "Road to Jericho". Brendan appears on the album as well though no release date has been announced yet. Finally, Tad's work should be seen very soon, as he has been working diligently on a relaunch of bluestraveler.com. Several surprises are in store for casual and frequent surfers alike, so keep checking back both there AND here for updates and news. Happy New Year!Back to BluesTraveler.Net |
