Yes. Blues Traveler is still around. Long ago frontman John Popper graduated from the more-is-more school of blues-rock jamming, his dissertation a seven-minute harmonica solo tucked into a 23-minute jam about a sweet-talking hippie. Since 1990 he's led the band in diligent touring and understatement-free recordings, including an album of covers of their own songs and this year's "North Hollywood Shootout." via www.myspace.com/bluestraveler
Lyrically, Popper's always swung for the fences, reaching for
profundity in nearly every line. Sometimes he comes pretty close.
Honestly, I owe these guys for making my 9th-grade year infinitely more
tolerable. Their brilliant "Travelers and Thieves" gave my
fourteen-year-old self scads of lines to mull over during those crappy
bus rides, back when the world still had a place for a good harmonica
solo.
-- Jonathan Hiskes