What are some of the qualities that you look for in a song?
The truth as it applies to me. I just wrote a song called “Broken and Blessed,” and it basically says I’m somewhere between Hell and hallelujah. So that’s pretty real to me. And it walks me through a lot that’s happened in the last couple of years and why it is that I’m still touring and still doing what it is that I do. Because I want to tell my truth, tell my story as I tell it. And that’s why this tour is so important to me, because the record’s coming out, and I’m really on a new high.
The record took five years to complete. And until it comes out, this gives me something to do over the summer. I love Melissa, and I love the fact that the two of us have survived all these years. And we’re still rocking!
When you record a song that has been recorded by another artist, how do you approach it: Faithfully? Do you reinvent it? Or somewhere in between?
Somewhere in between. I recorded Melissa’s song, “I’m the Only One” [for 2005’s Her Story: Scenes from a Lifetime]. And I wanted to do it to where when she heard it, she felt that she was listening to me. And of course that I’m honoring the original. So it’s both.
When you tour with Melissa, you’re each going to do a set. Are you going to sing and play together?
That’s a great question. I would love to say that we’re going to do something together because it just makes sense, right? The fans are going to want it, and we always listen to the fans, and it’s really important to me to do so. And I’m sure that they’ll want to hear both of us together at some point. So I can imagine that it will happen; it just hasn’t been addressed yet. It’s still too early, really, to go through production.
You had not yet reached your 20th birthday when the Judds’ debut EP Wynonna and Naomi was released, but you had already been performing since at least 1979, correct?
I’ve been performing my whole life!
Can you share a recollection of an early gig before you were signed, one at which you started to realize, “You know, this is going to happen”?
Rancho Nicasio. I was 14 at the time; not even driving. And we did a show out in Rancho Nicasio, which is in Marin County, California. We got up and sang with the band. And I remember thinking, “Oh, my gosh, this is it. This is what I want to do!” I just knew it was going to happen: I was going to be touring the world for the rest of my life.
As the story goes, the Judds were signed immediately following your audition for RCA. Can you tell me about that audition?
It was me and my guitar, of course, and Mom singing harmony. We sang a song that she wrote called “Change of Heart,” which we would go on to record later [on the 1984 EP Wynonna and Naomi] and “A Mother’s Smile,” which was from Hazel [Dickens] and Alice [Gerrard] on Rounder Records. Mom did the pitching and I did the singing, and she sang harmony. And we got signed on the spot.
That’s a fairytale story! Things like that rarely happen…
But it did! There was no 8x10 [photo]. There was no demo. There was just the two of us and the guitar, and it was just magical.
When you set out on your solo career, in what ways did you aim to distinguish yourself musically as separate and different from what you had done within the context of the Judds?
That’s a great question. Because Mom and I were acoustic, we didn’t have an electric guitar on our records ‘til much later.
First of all, I hired horns. And I got three of the most beautiful black backup singers in the history of country music, and I just went for it. Because I’m a rocker; that’s why I love the idea of touring with Melissa. I can break out some of the more thumping guitar-solo songs and enjoy them. I love to rock, and I’ve always loved r&b. I’m told that [my voice is] somewhere between hillbilly and blues singer. And I love both. So for me, it was really obvious that I would break out; I just wanted to rock.
The tour launches in late May and runs into August, and then you’ve got additional dates after that. After 40 plus years in the spotlight, what keeps it interesting and enjoyable for you?
Playing live. Looking out in the audience and seeing some guy that is looking at me like, “What the heck?” and making a connection.
There was a guy [in the audience] recently who had his arms folded; he just had this scowl on his face. I don’t know if he was in a bad mood or what the deal was, but I ended up making a real connection with him. He gave me a standing ovation at the end of the show. And I thought, “You know what? I’ve still got it.”
Blues Traveler: 40 Years of Run-Away Success
By Bill Kopp
Coming out of the NYC bar scene, Blues Traveler led the 1990s wave of jam bands. Fronted by singer and blues harpist John Popper, the group features guitarist Chan Kinchla and drummer Brendan Hill. Original bassist Bobby Sheehan died in 1999; after his passing the band replaced him with Chan’s brother Tad and keyboardist Ben Wilson. In the early ‘90s, Blues Traveler launched the wildly successful traveling H.O.R.D.E. festival; by 1994 they were among the most popular live and recording acts.
Today the band maintains its heavy touring schedule, and Blues Traveler still makes records; 2023’s Traveler’s Soul is their latest. The band’s latest run of dates kicks off with a show at the Bonnaroo Festival in Tennessee; in early July Blues Traveler embarks upon a tour co-billed with two other ‘90s sensations, Gin Blossoms and Spin Doctors. Ahead of those dates, Chan Kinchla spoke with Rock On about the band’s early days, its progress, and what he’s learned along the way.
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The band’s first appearance on David Letterman’s show was a turning point. How did that come about, and what did it mean for Blues Traveler?
Well, of course that was huge. It was our first real national exposure. Back in ‘88, ‘89 we were a New York City band, and we were playing all these little dive bars: five, six nights a week all over New York. And we kind of became the biggest little bar band in New York. We had a reputation around the city, and we were playing all the time. One place was Mondo Kane, which is down in the Village, where we played pretty much weekly. We had a lot of good times at that bar. There was a guy named John who was moonlighting as a bartender there. John had a job as a talent buyer for Letterman, and he got us in the door there.
Right around then, we released our first record, so there was a reason to have us on. It was just me and John [Popper] to start. That was all they would do, because the house band loved to play with people. Dave really took a liking to John and to us, so that turned into a regular thing, which was just so cool. When we were growing up – especially John and me – we watched Letterman on late-night TV. I would be sitting in my room practicing scales or whatever, watching Letterman, jamming with the band. We were huge fans, so for us, that was an amazing opportunity. And you know, Dave’s a legend.
What was the original inspiration for the H.O.R.D.E. Festival that Blues Traveler launched in 1992?
Chris Barron from Spin Doctors was our friend from high school. Chris, Bobby [Sheehan] and I went to Lollapalooza, and we were like, “This is fantastic!” There were a few other bands like Phish, Widespread Panic, Aquarium Rescue Unit, and Spin Doctors. We already would play together at college quad spring flings or whatever, so we were like, “We should get our knucklehead crew together and do something like this.” So we were just copying Lollapalooza there.
At the time, they called us neo-hippies or something. But there was this whole set of what later became what’s called jam bands. There was a fertile ground for something like that to happen, but none of us at that point were known at all, other than in our little regions. We were all very hard-touring bands, but very regional; there was no national anything for any of those bands. So H.O.R.D.E. was a very underground festival at the time; none of us had any hits.
A lot of those early shows were not very well attended, because it was what it was. But it turned into such a fun thing. And it really solidified our little east coast scene, from Widespread Panic’s region up through us up to Phish and all the other tangential bands.
During the band’s A&M Records years, you had Gold, Platinum and even 6X Platinum-selling albums. And you landed a whole bunch of singles on the charts. But Blues Traveler wasn’t exactly an overnight success; Four was the breakthrough album. Tell me how that all came about.
We’d had some good college radio success with a few songs. But we were as surprised as anyone when [in 1994] Four’s “Runaround” and “Hook” became such huge hits. I’ve got to give A&M credit: They were great. They were smaller; it was before Interscope bought ‘em. It was still people. We kind of grew with them, and we knew all the people. So by the time Four came around, we knew who were working with. Later they just became a huge corporate entity.
It’s a funny story. We turned in the Four record and they were like, “You’ve made too much of a ‘record company’ record. There’s not enough weird Blues Traveler stuff on it.” We had really wanted to focus down and make the songs tight. But they were like, “Go back and record some more weird, funky Blues Traveler stuff; flesh out the album a little bit.” So we had this quirky song called “Hook,” which we thought was making fun of making singles. And “Brother John” was another kind of live thing that we stuck on there.
But that’s the kind of relationship we had with the record company back then. There was some solid give and take; we respected their opinion, and we worked together. I don’t know how it works now.
Other than the passing of Bobby and then Ben and Tad joining, you’ve got the same lineup as you had at the very beginning. That kind of consistency is not typical for bands. What holds Blues Traveler together?
Like I always say, we went to school together, so we kind of grew up together. There are a lot of bonds that go way back. I’d say the that majority of bands [didn’t start out as] high school bands; they met in town a couple of years later, whatever. So [as individuals] they kind of came in fully formed.
And I think that adds to the family element for us. All our parents know each other. We’re all from Princeton, New Jersey. We look at it like we’re family. We can have fights, arguments, disagreements, but we’re going to be back together because we’re family. And I think that’s helped a lot. Just that we grew up together in Princeton helped us weather all that.
Our main thing when were starting out in Brendan [Hill’s] basement was that we just loved playing live, improvising. We always wanted to be a cool live band. Obviously doing the records and writing songs was part of that. But when things got rocky on the business or career side, we’d always just go back to playing. We love playing live, and we can do that. So that kept us moving forward. Playing live has never failed us. So we’ve leaned on that in tougher times; the other stuff can come and go.
Blues Traveler comes to the Nugget Casino Resort’s Grand Ballroom in Sparks, NV with Gin Blossoms and Spin Doctors on July 16.
Gin Blossoms’ Enduring Experience
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By Bill Kopp
Gin Blossoms’ blockbuster 1992 album New Miserable Experience spawned four Top 40 hit singles, and established the Arizona quintet as one of the top rock groups of that decade. Nearly 35 years later, the timeless appeal of Gin Blossoms’ music has endured. The band is currently on tour with Blues Traveler and Spin Doctors.
Ahead of the tour, Rock On scored a few moments with guitarist and songwriter Jesse Valenzuela. And to round out this feature, we’re including additional insight from his Gin Blossoms band mates Robin Wilson (lead vocals) and Scotty Johnson (lead guitar). The quotes from Wilson and Johnson are drawn from previously unpublished interviews conducted around the time of the band’s most recent studio release, Mixed Reality.
Tell me about the first big break that the band had.
Jesse Valenzuela: We were a band around town in Tempe for a long time, and then the local arts journal sent us to the South by Southwest festival. That’s what started it. And then we met a gentleman named Tom DeSavia from ASCAP [American Society of Composers and Performers]. He started championing us and got us to some labels.
In the very early days, the band covered Elton John’s “Rocket Man.” And on the 2010 Rarities album Gin Blossoms covered Big Star’s “Back of a Car.” I have a bootleg recording of the band from 1990 – Chuy’s Night Club in Tempe – and on the tape Gin Blossoms play Eagles’ “Already Gone,” the Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night” and even Thin Lizzy's “Cowboy Song,” a tune I’ve never heard anyone else cover.
Were covers a big part of how the band honed its skills?
Scotty Johnson: Yeah! Even before I joined, Gin Blossoms also used to do the theme from The Jeffersons, “Movin’ On Up,” and The Rutles’ “Number One.” Back in those days, you used to have to play all night. On Wednesday nights they played the little club Long Wong’s. Since they’d have to play all night, they'd do covers, and they called themselves by a different name. At one point they were called the Del Montes – like the canned vegetables. And they all had pseudonyms. So if you went on a Wednesday night and you stayed all night, you would hear them play 20 covers. And then on the weekends they were Gin Blossoms and just played their own originals. It was pretty rowdy! These days we generally only do one cover, because we just don’t have enough time.
Part of the reason that the band survived and flourished after founding member Doug Hopkins was out was that even as far back as your debut album Dusted, the songwriting was pretty evenly divided between you and him. What did you think of Doug’s songs?
Jesse: Even early on, Doug was a great songwriter; he had a marvelous skill level, much more than any of the rest of us. He had been putting original bands together for a long time, even in high school. He was a pretty actualized guy. He was really smart, too, and he really cared about his work. He wasn’t vamping; he was putting songs together.
When Doug was gone, did the band’s future look shaky?
Robin Wilson: It’s still terrifying when you lose any member of your band, and especially someone as talented and such a strong personality as Doug Hopkins. And we were definitely worried. When we finished New Miserable Experience, we really had no idea if anyone was ever going to hear it. There were months after the recording sessions where we just really had no idea whether or not it would ever come out, or if we would get dropped.
We were fighting to save the band. First, we decided we would try to do it as a four-piece with me playing rhythm guitar. And after a few rehearsals like that, we decided we’d be happier adding another guitar player. And that’s when we found Scotty Johnson.
Scotty: Our A&R guys had complete faith in Robin’s and Jesse’s songwriting abilities. We always had the support of the label. You’d hear so many bands talk how they hated thir label: “The label experience was the worst.” It wasn't like that at A&M. They were so supportive. We didn't want to go on the road, but they just kept pushing us. They kept saying, “No, this is working” and “You guys, this can happen.”
How did the belated success of New Miserable Experience change the band’s mindset and approach to doing things?
Jesse: I don’t know that it did. We still have the same sort of wrestling match with new ideas, the difficulties, the challenges. I just think it’s part of our nature.
Looking back at New Miserable Experience, there were six singles, which is pretty amazing. Did the runaway success of that set unreasonable expectations for the band?
Robin Wilson: The first thing we did after New Miserable Experience was “Til I Hear it from You,” which was co-written with Marshall Crenshaw. That was in ‘95, and it was a smash hit. Then we had to finish writing songs for Congratulations I’m Sorry. That’s the moment when you’re under the most pressure ever, because the label is literally sitting there waiting for you to write a hit. Not just an album track, not just a decent song. They asked for a hit.
So we wrote “Follow You Down.” That went on to be a top 10 single, and we performed it on Saturday Night Live. By any metric, we had a golden record with a couple of hit singles, a top 10 single, and a Grammy nomination. Congratulations I’m Sorry was a big success.
Jesse: I don’t know how anybody could look a gift horse in the mouth. If success is a problem, it’s a good problem to have!
Gin Blossoms have had a really rock-solid lineup since the days of New Miserable Experience. What holds you guys together after all these years?
Jesse: I always joke that it’s one word: Spite. But no, we’ve been together for so long; we’ve known each other through all kinds of things. There’s always talk about retirement. We’re not young anymore; we’re well into our 60s. But my notebook is filled with gratitudes, because it just gets better. The shows are terrific. There’s enjoyment of music, singing, playing, travel. It’s a nice time of life.
