Bastardos!

Performer: Blues Traveler
Engineer: Jay Bennett; Jim Vollentine
Producer: Jay Bennett; Jay Bennett
Distributor: Bayside Record Dist.

Notes: Blues Traveler: Chan Kinchla (guitar); Tad Kinchla (bass guitar); John Popper, Ben Wilson, Brendan Hill. Personnel: John Popper (vocals, harmonica); Jay Bennett (guitar, piano, percussion); Carlos Sosa (saxophone); Fernando "Radical" Castillo (trumpet); Ra�l Vallejo (trombone); Ben Wilson (keyboards); Brendan Hill (drums, percussion). Audio Producer: Jay Bennett. Audio Mixers: Jay Bennett; Jim Vollentine. Recording information: Pieholden Suite Sound, Chicago, IL; Texas Treefort Studio, Austin, TX. Editor: Carlos Sosa. Photographer: Cambria Lyn Harkey. Proving that there is life after Bonnaroo, Blues Traveler moves definitively beyond the "jam band" tag with BASTARDOS!, produced by former Wilco linchpin Jay Bennett. While this album doesn't exactly reach the outre levels of Wilco's YANKEE HOTEL FOXTROT, it's undoubtedly Blues Traveler's most sophisticated, forward-looking record. The band's moniker has always been something of a misnomer, and the bluesy element of their sound is almost non-existent here. Instead there's a strong flavor of '60s psychedelia. Keyboards are a greater presence then ever before (the band's keyboardist was still a relatively recent addition at the time of this album's release), and while John Popper's virtuosic chromatic harmonica playing is still in evidence, it's no longer the main focus. Popper and company take more chances than ever with the harmonic direction of the songs, and Bennett responds in kind by framing those songs in some of the most inventive sonic settings of the band's career.

Blues Traveler personified the second wave of jam bands that arose in the late '80s and early '90s. It was the Grateful Dead that turned the idea of playing a different, heavily improvised set of its tunes every night into a fine art. Like the Dead, Blues Traveler employs a hybrid of a number of classic American styles, from country to folk and blues, delivered in an idiosyncratic style. Led by the mighty singer/harp player John Popper, Blues Traveler had personality and appeal, but it wasn't until their hit "Runaround" that the group was catapulted into the public eye.

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