JPG: By the way when you’re talking about Traveler’s Blues, while the band never really made a specific “blues” album, but it always felt like the blues was part of the band’s DNA.

CK: That’s 100%. My formative years of playing was old blues guys but also Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, who are all very blues-based players. That was more the DNA of the band. We loved all kinds of music. We incorporated the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers and other stuff like that. When we came up in the ‘80s, it was classic rock radio. We were just getting saturated with it, which was great because it’s amazing music. So, we were exposed to a lot. But, we were a blues-based band at the beginning.

The way we looked at it [Traveler’s Blues] is the blues record we wanted to make back in ’85 or’86 in high school but we were just a bunch of punk kids. So, there’s no way we could do a proper blues record. We finally got enough wear and tear to make a proper blues record.

JPG: And now, you made this record, and I think there always was an element of soul/R&B in Blues Traveler’s DNA, too.

CK: For sure. John, I think is much more of a natural R&B soul singer. That’s really his singing style that suits him. His voice sounds amazing on this record. I just love it.

JPG: I agree. You mentioned how you had such fun making Traveler’s Blues and that ended up transitioning to Traveler’s Soul as the sequel. Do you think this might be a trilogy?

CK: I don’t know. We shall see. We’re getting antsy to go do another original record now. The way we looked at these, right when the pandemic hit, we had just done a year or so before an original record [2018’s Hurry Up & Hang Around]. It takes, especially later in your career, a lot of chips to fall the right way before you get emotional fortitude to go in and do an all-original record. We certainly weren’t ready. So, the blues thing happened. At first it was just going to be a couple songs, we weren’t sure. It went so well that we started to chase it—that’s kind of the Blues Traveler way. We just follow the muse…for better or worse.

The way we looked at it, these are standards now, these songs we’re working on. Back in the jazz era, the big band era, bands would do standards, like Frank Sinatra would do an album of standards.

We’re trying to cop those artists doing the standards, reimagine the standards. At this point though, I think we’re ready to do another originals record. If I had to guess, that’s where we go next.

Also, after our doing soul then the next thing to do is rock and roll and we already do that. We arrived at where we’re at. I don’t think we’re going to do a hardcore jazz record.

JPG: Well, a reggae album by Blues Traveler, that’d be interesting.

CK: We all came up in the ‘80s when punk rock and ska and all that was really big. So, we all started out on a lot of that music. I’m still a huge punk rock, ‘80s ska fan. In my band W4HORS3 we cop some of that. Anyway, Blues Traveler can fucking skank. We’re pretty good at playing reggae and ska. Maybe we’ll do that someday but who knows? We’ll see what next year brings.

JPG: You mentioned the pandemic. It’s interesting that your last two albums came about during and after the pandemic and so did Gov’t Mule’s last two albums; two bands that came on to the music scene around the same time. And, they’re very strong albums. Do you think you needed the pandemic break? It gave you a necessary timeout that you didn’t think you needed, that refreshed you creatively and physically?

CK: Quite possibly. We moved to New York in ‘87. We started touring like ’89 and we never stopped. We never had a year off. Even after Bobby [Sheehan] died, we still did gigs.

We joke that it took a global pandemic to make us take a year off. Honestly, it was nice downtime to decompress from road life a little bit but it also made me appreciate touring all the more. It was a chance for everyone to reassess what their priorities were. Across all different walks of life, everyone took advantage of it that way. We sure didn’t mind it.

JPG: Speaking of appreciating things, I can’t help but bring up H.O.R.D.E. and curious for your thoughts about that time and its legacy for you and the jamband scene.

CK: It was a great coming together, that whole era. The whole idea was, we, especially on the east coast, in the late ‘80s we toured up and down from like Atlanta to Burlington and Phish would and Widespread Panic would and the Aquarium Rescue Unit would, and we kept bumping into each other and we got to know each other doing that. We just thought it’d be really fun instead of the summer playing little shithole clubs because we didn’t have any fanbases at that point, it would be fun to combine forces and be able to play outdoors at some of these sheds.

That original H.O.R.D.E., all those bands including Spin Doctors and Bela Fleck at that time, and then the following year there was Dave Matthews and Big Head Todd jumped on board. All these amazing bands that are still around today doing great work playing real live music with solos and their own identities.

It was a really cool time and was a great capstone of what was actually happening in that whole era. I’m not surprised that all those bands have gone on to do great, great stuff down the line.

I don’t think H.O.R.D.E necessarily created it. I think H.O.R.D.E. was just a great showcase of what was going on. I’m really proud to be part of it and that we could help put that whole thing together.

JPG: That’s probably the best word to describe it, “showcase”. It reminds me of Lollapalooza which collected  and showcased a bunch of alternative rock acts on one bill in order to play large sheds in the summer.

CK: Here’s the thing. Lollapalooza was the summer before, and we went to Lollapalooza, me and John and Bobby [Sheehan]. When we were playing with all these other bands, it would be Spring Fling with Phish or we would do a gig down in Baltimore with Widespread Panic where they’d open up for us and we’d open up for them down South. At Lollapalooza we were like, “We should do this with all our homies!” Honestly, H.O.R.D.E. was basically jamband Lollapalooza.  

JPG: I remember going to that first Lollapalooza where Jane’s Addiction headlined at a sold-out Blossom Music Center, walking in there, looking around and thinking, “Wow! There are so many of us! Who knew?” Everybody was going to club shows or small theaters for all of these bands.

CK: That’s a great point, and if you remember back then, that’s how we got to know shit. A big festival like that was an actual coming together. People didn’t know that all these other people or even other bands existed necessarily because it was just rumors and your local scene. Those big festival concerts were such a big deal for creating and exposing a scene. In any case H.O.R.D.E. definitely helped bring together a scene in a larger way.

JPG: Earlier, you mentioned your side project, W4RHORS3.

CK: My side hustle! I did something really fun the other night. We got off Blues Traveler tour and W4RHORS3 [pronounced WARHORSE] opened up for a famous Southern California Dead, trippy band, Cubensis. They’ve been around forever, and I’m friends with the guys. So, I was guest guitarist for the whole night. Twenty Dead tunes! It was amazing!

I love the Dead and we’ve played a song here and there, but it’s so cool to dive in deep and play all these great songs from my past. I’m completely immersed in Grateful Dead right now, which is great. I was always a Jerry guy.

As for W4RHORS3 I go back to my early days of Blues Traveler. We had a rule, me and Bobby, that because we were always out socializing, quote unquote socializing as in partying, so, we met a lot of people we’re like within five minutes, everyone needs to know the name of the band we’re in and where we’re playing next.

There are so many great musicians in L.A. Nate LaPointe, the guitarist from Cubensis, plays in W4RHORS3 at times. It’s got a power trio. That’s the center of it. Then, we have a bunch of other people that rotate around, and it’s all original music. Although, when we play live, we do covers and it’s fun as shit. So, that’s what’s going on with W4RHORS3.

Our next gig is December 7th at The Mint. So, there you go. You know the name of the band and where we’re playing next. Only way you can get a band off the ground, you gotta hustle. You got to put it on the street.

JPG: You mentioned your next gig within five minutes.

CK: And more importantly you always have to have a next gig. If anyone asks me, always have an upcoming gig and make sure you tell people the name of your band.

JPG: Is W4RHORS3 jammy or punk rock or…

CK: Very jammy. It’s jammy rock. You can go to Instagram, W4RHORS3. We have all kinds of shit. Check it out, and Soundcloud, there’s a bunch of songs on there. We’re working on an album.

Here’s the thing. I raised two children. I quit partying. A couple years ago I was like, “My kids are grown up. I have all this free time. I really need a hobby.” So, I started thinking to myself, “Well, what do you like to do?” And I realized I like to play guitar in rock bands. So, for my hobby, I play guitar in a rock band.

JPG: That goes nicely into this quote I read of yours, a great, upbeat motto of life, “The more I do it, the more I like it.”

CK: That’s it. That does tie right into it. I guess I’m following my own advice.

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