Buffalo Place

Thursday, June 16th

Blues Traveler
www.bluestraveler.com 

This high octane blues, funk and pop inspired rock group is known for putting on explosive live performances complete with stellar harmonica solos, “All For You.”  The New Jersey quartet originally consisted of high school friends John Popper (vocals and harmonica), Chan Kinchla (guitar), Brendan Hill (drums) and Bobby Sheehan (bass) formed in 1983.  These Jersey boys soon moved to New York City and became regulars jamming in the bar and club scene.  After signing with A&M Records in 1990, the group put out three records before their fourth album, Four broke onto the Billboard Top 100 charts in 1995.  The growing popularity of the group inspired them to create their own musical festival, Horizons of Rock Developing Everywhere also known as H.O.R.D.E. in 1992.  Popper was inspired by the success of Lollapalooza and organized the initial H.O.R.D.E. by bringing together the bands Widespread Panic, The Samples, The Spin Doctors, the Aquarium Rescue Unit and Phish to perform during the opening year of their outdoor summer music festival.  The festival continued for seven years and went onto feature legendary acts including, Allman Brothers Band, Neil Young and future stars including Dave Matthews Band and Sheryl Crow. 

Blues Traveler joined the bill of the 25th anniversary of Woodstock held in Saugerties, New York in August 1994.  Other performers included Aerosmith, Allman Brothers Band, Counting Crows, Green Day, Metallica, Nine Inch Nails and Violent Femmes and special guests from Woodstock ’69, The Band, Santana, Joe Cocker, Country Joe McDonald and Crosby, Stills, and Nash.  The success of Blues Travelers fourth album was attributed to their hit single, “Run Around” which went on to win a Grammy in 1995 in the category of Best Rock Performance By a Duo or Group with Vocal. This quintuple-platinum standing record spent 49 weeks on Billboard charts.  It launched the group into super stardom and landed them a spot on the television sitcom “Roseanne” playing the former band mates of John Goodman’s character Dan Conner.  The band also appeared as an Amish band in the 1996 comedy Kingpin.

In 1999, lead singer John Popper was experiencing chest pains and hand to undergo an angioplasty.  He survived and has since truly invested in living a healthier lifestyle.  Later in 1999, tragedy struck when thirty-one year old bassist Bobby Sheehan was found deceased in his New Orleans home having suffered from a drug overdose.  Upon his death, two new members were added to Blues Traveler, keyboardist Ben Wilson and bassist Tad Kinchla.  The new line up pushed out Bridge in 2001 followed by Truth Be Told in 2003.  The history of the band, including stories of Sheehan’s death and Popper’s struggle with obesity, aired on VH1’s “Behind the Music” in May 2001. 

The group has been active at the annual Jammy Awards with Popper performing in 2001 and hosting in 2002 and the group performing a tribute to the Wetlands Club at the sixth annual Jammy Awards in 2006.  In ’06 the group also recorded the theme song for the NBC sitcom “Sanford and Sun” and re-recorded their 1994 hit “Run Around” with bohemian singer Antony.  Recently the group has been involved with several humanitarian efforts including, their 2010 tour promoting the Boys & Girls Clubs of America encouraging youth to “BE GREAT,” headlining the Dare 2 Dream 2010 Chicago event supporting the Partnership for Cures in their efforts to find a cure to juvenile diabetes and participating in the 2010 “Breathe. Repower America” clean air video.  Blues Traveler cohorts state they “remain one of the few kingpins of the jam scene who can actually back up their grooves with carefully crafted songs and stories that are both witty and catchy.”  Popper says, "We're still trying to cultivate what we're individually good at into something that's bigger than the sum of its parts. When we're all playing and it's working, it becomes this separate entity, and that's still the thing that we're chasing." 


Opening for Blues Traveler…

Willie Nile
www.willienile.com 

Willie Nile is a Buffalo born and raised musical wonder who has recorded and performed alongside The Who, Ringo Starr, Lucinda Williams, Richard Thompson, Roger McGuinn, Levon Helm, The Pretenders, Counting Crows, Jakob Dylan and Rosanne Cash.  He was raised in a musical family as his uncles played boogie-woogie and his grandfather was a vaudeville pianist who played with Bill “Bojangles” Robinson and Eddie Cantor.  Nile grew up listening to Elvis Presley, Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly and Fats Domino and began studying piano at age eight.  Nile went on to study classical music into his teen years and after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University at Buffalo he moved to Greenwich Village in New York City.

The Buffalonian amerced himself in the CBGB club scene and would hangout and listen to Patti Smith, Television, The Ramones and Talking Heads.  After establishing himself in the Village club Kenny’s Castaways, he signed with Arista Records.  A self-titled album released in 1980 followed by Goldon Dawn in 1981, before legal problems with his record company pushed him towards taking a seven year hiatus.  Willie reemerged playing an Oslo, Norway gig in 1987 which lead him to sign a record deal with Columbia in 1988.  On his ’91 album Places I Have Never Been, Nile collaborates with Richard Thompson, Loudon Wainwright III, Roger McGuinn and members of the Hooters and the Roches.  Willie Nile has opened for The Who and Bruce Springsteen and also wrote and performed music for the Kevin McLaughlin film, Pinch Me!  

Buffalo News Pop music critic Jeff Miers believes Willie Nilie’s latest albums, Streets of New York, House of a Thousand Guitars and the just-released The Innocent Ones stand as three of the finest recordings to ever straddle the worlds of “singer/songwriter” fare and good ol’ street-tough rock ’n’ roll.”