items tagged with River Roots Live

(Other coverage of River Roots Live 2011 can be found here.)

Blues Traveler guitarist and songwriter Chan Kinchla calls the band’s 2005 album ¡Bastardos! “our transitional record,” and he admitted it has been a long transition.

Following three gold albums, the group – fronted by vocalist, harmonica player, and songwriter John Popper – had a top-10 hit in the mid-1990s with Four’s “Run-Around,” and the record itself went platinum six times, no small feat for a jam band. Straight on Till Morning (from 1997) also went platinum, but the death in 1999 of bassist Bobby Sheehan spurred a process of reinvention that might finally be over.

Blues Traveler will be headlining River Roots Live on Saturday, August 20, and as the band prepares to celebrate its 25th anniversary next year, it’s planning big things. A retrospective package – including B sides and live material – is slated for March release, Kinchla said in a phone interview last week. (“The B sides have turned into almost a pretty good album all by themselves.”) And a new record is in the works for the summer. That, he said, will be Blues Traveler’s attempt at a great album.

(Other coverage of River Roots Live 2011 can be found here.)

For the video promo for her song “Chase the Thrill,” Nikka Costa said she and the director “just got in my bathroom and went for it.”

Lest you think that something dirty happened, “went for it” in this case means re-creating the famous shower scene from Psycho, with Costa in the role of Marion Crane.

Also on her “Nikka’s Box” YouTube channel (YouTube.com/user/nikkasbox) is a Rocky-style training video and “Streaking Nikka,” in which the topless rock/soul singer (naughty bits obscured) encourages viewers to check out her new EP Pro*Whoa. “What’s a girl gotta do to get her music heard?” she asks.

Such is the existence of Costa, who will close River Roots Live with an 11 p.m. set on August 20. She is now operating independently after a successful music career as a child (she is the daughter of producer Don Costa) and well-reviewed albums as an adult on Virgin and Stax. (Entertainment Weekly called 2001’s Everybody Got Their Something an “intoxicating starburst of self-affirming R&B” and “an audacious, fresh-as-a-daisy debut,” while the All Music Guide said its follow-up features songs that are “muscular, funky, and imaginatively arranged ... .This is big, dynamic music that cries for a big audience ... .”)

(Other coverage of River Roots Live 2011 can be found here.)

For its second record, The Apache Relay – which will perform on August 20 at River Roots Live – initially tracked 10 songs in early 2010. But the band sat on the record – preferring a 2011 release to a late-2010 one – and that layoff prompted singer/songwriter Michael Ford Jr. to write new songs.

“I felt like in my heart of hearts that I had songs that needed to be on the record that hadn’t been written yet,” he said in a phone interview last week. “I felt like I had better in me. ... I wanted to write better songs.”

So in the fall they tracked a handful of songs – some new, some different versions of previously recorded songs – and the fusion of those two sessions is American Nomad, which Nashville Scene called “exuberantly tuneful” and “irresistibly idealistic.”

The final version of American Nomad only ditched two songs – “Sets Me Free” and “Lost Kid” took their places – but the band’s decision to hold off on the record is one indication of the The Apache Relay’s maturity. Even though the band is young – Ford is 23 – and has been around just two years, it seems and sounds far more experienced.

The idea, says former Creedence Clearwater Revival bassist Stu Cook, began simply enough.

"Back in the mid-'90s, I relocated from southern California up to Lake Tahoe in northern Nevada, and Doug [Clifford, Creedence's former percussionist] had been living there with his family for 15, 20 years. We hadn't lived in the same area for decades, and we started hanging out every day, and playing music, and just talking about how much fun it was, and how it felt to play together again.

"So we were bound to get into trouble," says Cook with a laugh. "And goodness, look what happened."