Traveler's Blues

Picking up the thread left hanging from 2018s back-to-basics Hurry Up & Hang Around, Travelers Blues finds Blues Traveler covering a bunch of their favorite tunes -- mostly blues -- but they find space for such unexpected detours as Gnarls Barkleys Crazy. This version of Crazy happens to feature vocals by Rita Wilson and guitar by John Scofield, whose presence indicates the wide range of guest stars on Travelers Blues. Blues Traveler ropes in such fellow jam band travelers as Warren Haynes and their old pal Crystal Bowersox, who appeared on their 2012 album Suzie Cracks the Whip, but there are also a ton of blues players -- people as old as Keb Mo and as young as Christone Kingfish Ingram -- and Willie Nelsons longtime harpist Mickey Raphael. Maybe Blues Traveler didnt reinvent these songs, playing these familiar tunes fairly straight, but the guests keep Blues Traveler nimble and lend Travelers Blues a bit of a welcome party vibe. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine