Anthology

“What happened to the Blues Travelers behind Popper, they look all old!” John Popper, award winning harmonica handler and famed Blues Traveler frontman, muses how audiences will react when his new not-quite-solo project takes the stage in upcoming weeks. “[Or] they’ll probably think ‘What the hell is this?’ and hopefully a few songs in, they’ll decide that they like it.”

John Popper & The Duskray Troubadours assembled a year ago with the intention of catalyzing a creative rejuvenation. Preferably one that wouldn’t rely on the shrill, high pitched and fast paced characteristics of a Traveler’s track. “Next year’s going to be Blues Traveler’s 25th anniversary,” Popper commented. “And I love doing Blues Traveler. But when you’re known for a particular sound it gets limiting, you know?”

Comprised of old friends and musicians who’ve supported Blues Traveler over the years, The Duskray Troubadours have succeeded in creating a subtler, more melodic and collective musical outlet. “Its’ a little more, I don’t want to say folk, but I think they use the word Americana or roots music. And a lot of it reminds me of old R&B. It’s fun to get to do that and sing in keys that I can sing in my 40’s. I’ll tell ya, I love Hook but I wrote that in my 20’s and man was I an idiot. I want to go back in time and smack myself around. Remind myself I was going to be singing it for the next 30 years!”

Set for a March 1st release, the self-titled debut is a twelve track phonic rendering of “something that’s, to quote the title of our single, Something Sweet,” as Popper puts it. A real medley of collaborative efforts, the writing process saw the group literally daring one another to finish what the other had started. “All the Way Down. That was the first thing that Jono [Manson] and I started writing together. That was him and I truly collaborating, where I’d written a verse and a chorus and he figured out the bridge.” An endeavor of co-writing that has paid off in a compact trail mix of a listen, the album interjects acoustic warmth and nostalgic nods amongst more specific eccentricities. Like the ghostly undertones of Bereft, written near the site of English poet Percy Shelley’s drowning. And Leave It Up to Fate, a Blues Traveler reject re-crafted into a cow-punk ditty.

“I knew that I needed to do it just for me. To heal some boredom in me or some ache, some yearning,” Popper reveals about his experience in The Duskray Troubadours. “But it has been so much more satisfying than I thought it could be.”

Though some things, like the incorporation of hand-freeing harmonica headgear, will never materialize in a Popper project (“They’re horrible contraptions [that] just scream ‘Hit me. I’m a nerd. Steal my book bag.’”), fans can anticipate his continued evolution of harp stylings and melodic traversing though the likes of hip-hop, country and even Blues Traveler’s 25th anniversary album (out next year). As for The Duskray Troubadours, and the emergent excitement of presenting a sincere collection of new music, Popper says, “Everybody loves the comedian who tells the joke where you say to yourself ‘I know exactly what he means.’ And I think songs are no different. If you can get an experience across to a listener when they know what you mean and they identify, then that’s going to be successful. And that’s what I’m counting on.”

John Popper and The Duskray Troubadours will be playing Anthology Thursday, March 3rd. Tickets and additional show information can be found by visiting anthologysd.com.

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