Round Hill Records will release “Keep Your Light On Mama” (feat. Jared James Nichols), the new digital bonus track from Traveler’s Blues, Blues Traveler’s collection of re-imagined and re-charged classics from the American Blues Songbook that has been re-mastered in Dolby Atmos.
Traveler’s Blues was released on July 30th in conjunction with the band’s first U.S. tour since the pandemic and debuted at #1 on the Blues Album chart. Blues Traveler began their tour on July 4th at Red Rocks in Colorado with parts of show airing live on CNN. They were also guests on the Today Show in August and performed “Crazy.”
Reflecting on recording the song, Blues Traveler’s Chan Kinchla said: “This track came out fantastic. Great blues rock riff and attitude. We can’t wait to play this live with Jared one day!” Adds Jared James Nichols: “Blues Traveler has been a constant soundtrack in my life for as long as I can remember. To be able to collaborate with the band is a total dream come true. We jammed hard! “Keep Your Light On Mama” started life out as a guitar driven fuzzed-out riff rocker, but with the influence, spirit, and musicianship of the band, the song evolved to a whole new level. It’s funky, soulful, pure rock ‘n roll…Turn this one up and groove.”
Traveler’s Blues is the band’s fourteenth full-length album. This time around, the quintet—John Popper (vocals, harmonica), Chan Kinchla (guitar), Tad Kinchla (bass), Ben Wilson (keyboards) and Brendan Hill (drums), along with a few guests have made the record they were always meant to make, an eleven song album… something old, something new, something borrowed and something blues.
Blues Traveler burst onto the scene in 1987 and hit the ground running with a trio of gold-selling albums—Blues Traveler (1990), Travelers and Thieves (1991) and Save His Soul (1993). Their next album Four (1994) went six-times platinum and spawned the definitive “Run-Around,” which garnered a GRAMMY® Award in the category of “Best Rock Performance By a Duo or Group.” The band logged another platinum album with Straight On Till Morning in 1998 and spent the next twenty years selling out shows on multiple continents before releasing Hurry Up & Hang Around in 2018.
“Back in the day, we were all into blues,” says Chan. “We even started as a high school blues band. That’s why our name is Blues Traveler! So, it was fun to come full circle and really get back to blues more than we’d ever planned. It took a lifetime for us to play this style well. There’s no way we could’ve pulled off this album when we were younger. After thirty years, we finally made the record we aspired to make as kids.”
Retreating to Nashville in late 2020, they reteamed with GRAMMY® Award-winning producer Matt Rollings (Willie Nelson) and rather than overthink anything or over prepare, they dove right into the deep end.
