By ANDRIA WILLIAMS
Staff Writer
 

Blues Traveler rose steadily in popularity since its formation eleven years ago by four high school classmates in Princeton, New Jersey. John Popper, the harmonica-driving wonder, spent most of his childhood in Connecticut, but moved to Princeton at the age of 15. He formed a comedy duo with a friend in which they performed an impression of the Blues Brothers, with Popper as Belushi and his friend playing harmonica like Aykroyd. Popper was intrigued by the instrument and took it up, and from that time on was known at his high school as "the harmonica guy." Explained Popper in a recent Guitar World interview: "I had been through every instrument, starting with the cello, and including the guitar, but none of it lasted because I hated practicing. Then I got a harmonica, and it didn't feel like practicing, so I played it all the time."

Chan Kinchla, on guitar, played football and lacrosse at Princeton High School. Enter London-born Brendan Hill, with the ability to man drums and percussion, in 1983. It was four years later that Brooklyn-born bass player Bobby Sheehan joined up, and the group as we know it was made.

After high school, the four members moved to New York City together, where everyone except for Kinchla studied at the New School for Social Research jazz studies program. They played at local clubs, a step up from the keg-party gig days of high school. Only three years after their high school graduation, they were signed by A&M Records.

It's been quite a long, strange trip for these four Jerry Garcia disciples since that original signing. Their album "Four" has sold seven million copies, they began the now-mighty H.O.R.D.E Festival, and their popularity continues to rise every day.

Some controversy has surrounded the band because of their support of marijuana legalization. Recently, a coalition of New Jersey state officials and anti-activists worked to end the H.O.R.D.E. Festival because the band had participated in NORML's "Hempilation" benefit album. The coalition accused the band of being on a "mission to glorify drug use in a state park". Said an annoyed Popper in a recent interview: "People were trying to stop the tour because we contributed a song to a record! That's ludicrous. It's strictly a matter of freedom of speech, and it's great that we won our court case."

Added Sheehan: "There's a stigma attached to doing something like `Hempilation' that shouldn't be attached. We don't necessarily want to stand on a platform and tell people to smoke pot...But we believe in what NORML's doing, and we believe in freedom of choice." He compares the situation to women's suffrage: "Eighty years ago women weren't allowed to vote, and now they can. There's a reason why people lobby to get things changed."

While Blues Traveler is not touring with H.O.R.D.E. this year, they are the founders of the tour and continue to own the event, and will play three shows. The brainchild came into existence due to the fact that the band was playing consistently with others like the Dave Matthews Band, Phish, and Widespread Panic. Reasoned Popper: "I just figured that by joining together we would all be able to go get out of the clubs and theaters and play some big places." The idea worked: the festival has now had such participants as the Black Crowes, Melissa Etheridge, and the Allman Brothers. Neil Young is headlining the tour this year.

With the massive success of their albums and their tour, one might expect that the band could get a bit cocky. But they are trying their best to keep everything in perspective. The band members say that they have learned a lot from watching what happened to their fellow musicians and friends The Spin Doctors, who exploded into success in 1992 but also crashed shortly thereafter. Kinchla describes the scenario: "They were our first friends to have real success, and it was difficult to watch how it changed them. At heart, they were still the same guys we knew, but they kind of lost their footing and took it all a little more to heart than you should, `cause it's all just a game."

Concurs Popper: "I can say with certainty that if our first record had exploded the way theirs did, we wouldn't have lasted as long as they did. When you are 19 or 20 and everyone is talking about how magnificent you are and you see it in tangible record sales and great big checks...it would be very hard for anyone to keep any perspective. What happened to them was a real tragic thing."

So what does Blues Traveler make of its success? Sheehan has a fable that explains his philosophy: "It's a little bit like `Dewey and the Snorster.' Dewey's from a family of giants, but he's like this underdeveloped giant who never grew. Then one day, when this terrible dragon was attacking his town, he suddenly grew and attacked the giant Snorster! And it didn't happen for any other reason except that it was time."