* En anglais uniquement
The harmonica virtuoso and rotund frontman for jam band favorites
Blues Traveler, singer/harpist
John Popper was born in Cleveland, OH, on March 29, 1967. While attending high school in Princeton, NJ, he befriended drummer
Brendan Hill; together, the two -- in combination with guitarist
Chan Kinchla and bassist
Bobby Sheehan -- would go on to form
Blues Traveler, earning a fervent grassroots following during the early '90s on the basis of their relentless touring schedule and a sprawling blues-rock sound that aligned them alongside other neo-hippie outfits including
Phish,
Widespread Panic, and
the Spin Doctors. All of the aforementioned joined
Blues Traveler in 1992 on the inaugural H.O.R.D.E. (Horizons of Rock Developing Everywhere) tour, which was originally conceived by
Popper and band manager Dave Frey and went on to become one of the most successful annual tour packages of the decade.
The group's momentum was derailed in the fall of 1992, however, when
Popper was severely injured in a motorcycle accident; returning to the road, he played a number of dates while confined to a wheelchair. Released in 1994,
Four was
Blues Traveler's mainstream breakthrough, launching a major hit with the single "Run-Around." After completing his 1999 debut solo effort,
Zygote,
Popper -- who'd been experiencing chest pains for months -- was forced to undergo an angioplasty; the record's eventual release that September was further overshadowed when
Blues Traveler bassist
Sheehan was found dead in his New Orleans home on August 20. But following his record's release,
Popper took his backing band out on the road for the first time through that winter. Still struggling with health problems (and obese for quite a while),
Popper underwent gastric bypass surgery the next year, which led to a significant weight loss.
The sixth
Blues Traveler album,
Bridge, then appeared in May 2001;
Truth Be Told followed two years later. When
BT decided to take a break at the end of the year (to accommodate
Chan Kinchla's growing family),
Popper wasn't ready to sit around and so hooked up with bassist
Rob Wasserman (of RatDog fame), playing a random show together in San Francisco. Turntablist
DJ Logic happened to drop by for that set, and next thing anyone knew,
Popper and
Logic had formed the John Popper Project together in early 2004. The group, which also includes
Blues Traveler bassist
Tad Kinchla and Mosaic drummer Marcus Bleeker, went on to tour sporadically in between
BT's schedule, eventually releasing their first album together in October 2006.
BT reunited for the 2008 recording
North Hollywood Shootout on
Verve's Forecast imprint and once more toured heavily in support of it. The last two years of the 21st century's first decade found
Popper in demand as a session player, contributing to albums such as
John Oates'
1000 Miles of Life,
ZO2's
Casino Logic, and
Lisa Bouchelle's Blue Room with a Red Vase. In 2010
Popper assembled another band called
John Popper & the Duskray Troubadours. He described it as "a scrappy roots rock alter ego to
Blues Traveler," though they sound directly influenced by the music of
the Band. Besides
Popper, the group consists of guitarist/producer/keyboardist
Jono Manson, bassist Steve Lindsay, drummer
Mark Clark, and guitarists
Kevin Trainor and
Aaron Beavers. They issued their self-titled debut album on 429 Records in early 2011. ~ Jason Ankeny