Blues Traveler'Travelogue: Blues Traveler Classics'

AM Records

Grade: A-

Most college students remember the first time they saw the video for Blues Traveler's "Run Around" and giggled at Dorothy's attempts to get into the club to watch the band perform. The delightful spin on "The Wizard of Oz," paired with the undeniable catchiness of the song, catapulted Blues Traveler into the spotlight, where they have been shining ever since. They have endured huge success, tragedy — their founding bassist Bobby Sheehan died suddenly at age 31, right before a tour — and miles and miles of open road. Now, 12 years after the band released its first record, "Travelogue: Blues Traveler Classics," is being released to the public.

"Travelogue" is your basic greatest hits album at heart, but with less hits than usual. For all of Blues Traveler's critical acclaim and loyal, intense fan base, their mainstream hits number only three. This small number leaves a lot of room for gems that the public has passed over to be included on this album, and included they are. Excellent tracks like "Just For Me," "The Mountains Win Again," and the superb, mostly-instrumental jam, "Mountain Cry," are allowed to shine on this CD in ways the mainstream public never permitted.

The band has also done a wonderful job of picking a good number of tracks from every CD they have released. While "Four" is the band's most popular record to date, spawning the hits "Run Around" and "Hook" — both included on this compilation — it is given as many spots as the self-titled first album and second album, "Travelers & Thieves." This equality is one of the best things about this album: The listener really gets the feeling of being given a sampling of Blues Traveler's whole catalogue, not just their radio hits.

The radio hits are featured, but in a wonderfully punctual way. The CD opens with "But Anyway," Blues Traveler's first, but not biggest, mainstream hit. Ten songs in, the welcomed chords of "Run Around" kick in, giving the listener something familiar to draw them back into the album, should they be losing interest. Four songs later, Blues Traveler's last huge hit to date, "Hook," is offered up as another palate refresher before the album serves up its last course of relatively-unknown songs for the listener to chew on.

This way, the hits are still fresh and do not sound overplayed on the album itself; it is almost as if Blues Traveler included them somewhat sheepishly, like they didn't want to admit how big they have become. There is a rushed, "Yeah, that's our hit, but hey, listen to this!" quality about their inclusion that is charming.

My only nitpick with this album is that it can be slightly alienating at times. I am not, personally, a huge Blues Traveler fan, although I do enjoy their music quite a bit, and while hearing all these unknown songs, I wished at times that I could hear something I recognized. Everything I heard was good, but I found myself waiting for "Run Around" or "Hook" to come up so I could hum along again. But, "Travelogue: Blues Traveler Classics" is, when it comes down to it, a really excellent album for any Blues Traveler fan to own.