Blues Traveler have sadly lost one member, founding member and bassist Bobby Sheehan, and half of another as frontman John Popper, who underwent surgery and is a sliver of his former self, but whose voice is as dynamic as ever.
Popper gets off some squeaky-clean harmonica tweaks on “Back In The Day”, the highlight being once again the voice. “Pretty Angry (For J. Sheehan)” is a somber song of love that sits longing and despaired over missing someone and a little of yourself.
“Rage” is the one track you’d expect to have heard long ago, but Popper has always been much more optimistic in his music than he may have even been in real life, thus producing a song like “Just For Me”. It brings along great lines like, “I was just glad I’m alive and I had nothing else to do” and “if I was looking for a miracle I might do well to look up to the sky/ the dawn breaking open the day you’d say that it was blinding me”. Popper seems to be taking his new life in all its glorious strides.
Blues Traveler is at their best when they are leaving nothing on the table. “You’re Burning Me” roars with as much spirit as the band has ever showed. It’s blistering and that is something I wouldn’t mind seeing more of. Bridge seems to be more compressed. Its compact nature doesn’t allow for the ability to get off on tangents that fans may desire, however, new fans won’t get lost in the lingering. It’s fiery, even when despondent, and soulful even when passion seems farthest from the mind.
+ rae gun
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