Blues Traveler is an American rock band that formed in Princeton, New Jersey in 1987. They are known for extensive use of segues in live performances and were considered a key part of the re-emerging jam band scene of the 1990s, spearheading the H.O.R.D.E. touring music festival.
Currently, the group comprises singer and harmonica player John Popper, guitarist Chan Kinchla, drummer Brendan Hill, bassist Tad Kinchla, and keyboardist Ben Wilson. Tad Kinchla and Ben Wilson joined the band following the death of original bassist Bobby Sheehan in 1999.
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", "Hook", and "But Anyway". They gained mainstream popularity after their fourth studio album, four, which was released in 1994 and became a sleeper hit almost a year later. Sheehan's death and Popper's struggle with obesity put a damper on the group's success, and A&M dropped the band in 2002. In the years following, the band has bounced around through a succession of independent labels and record producers, and gotten increasingly experimental with their recorded output.
Blues Traveler's latest album, Traveler's Blues, was released in July 2021, and has been nominated by The Recording Academy for Best Traditional Blues album at the 2022 GRAMMY Awards.