Welcome everyone to another edition of Top Five Fridays where I pick an artist or a theme and give you my five favorite songs. This week, I look at Blues Traveler.
I don’t know why, but I feel like the group has been around my whole life. They broke through in the 90’s, but have stayed in my subconscious well past that thanks to their catchy tunes. I’ll also give their version of the Roseanne theme song some credit as well (won’t make the Top Five, but it’s close to making it).
Without further ado, let’s get to the countdown!
5. Accelerated Nation
In case you didn’t know, Blues Traveler has a new album coming out in 2018 and if you only heard some of their greater hits you might be surprised in terms of the change in sound. Honestly, I like the change in sound and it still has that classic Blues Traveler style. Interested to hear how the rest of the album turns out.
4. Vagabond Blues (ft. Dirty Heads & Rome Ramirez)
I’ll always appreciate some experimentation and this entire album is filled with that. Blow Up the Moon has songs with 3OH!3, Thompson Square, but it’s this song with the Dirty Heads and Rome Ramirez (of Sublime with Rome) that caught my attention. It has the Dirty Heads sound combined with the great harmonica of John Popper and it somehow works. Experimentation is always a good thing.
3. Hook
Ithttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdz5kCaCRFM truly is the hook that brings you back to this song. It works on a lot of levels, especially when you dive into what the lyrics are and how the song was composed. The third verse is iconic for a litany of reasons and Emma Stone breathed new life into the song on Jimmy Fallon a few years ago. It’s one of my personal favorites in terms of all-time favorite songs.
2. Slow Change
This track has a lot of things I like about it; the speed of the song is everywhere but is deliberate, it really has a jam band feel to it at certain points, and most importantly it’s a showcase of how good John Popper is with a harmonica. Go out of your way and check it out.
1. Run-Around
How can it not be their breakout hit. You’ve got the iconic harmonica getting you into it out the gate and then Popper starts singing his heart out about an unrequited love. It’s one of the best songs that they made and much like Hook it has stood the test of time as their magnum opus
