225BatonRouge.com

Yes, those are prog rock vocal sample keyboard whirls drowning out the harmonica on Blues Travelers’ latest, Bastardos. Produced with audacious slight-of-hand by Wilco’s most famous ex, Jay Bennett, the new album finds the group chopping further away from Four’s radio-ready blues pop and into deeper, post-psychedelic waters. 225 finds Popper on tour with a new lineup and headed for The Varsity Theatre (varsitytheatre.com) on Feb. 23.

The many incarnations of Blues Traveler have played Baton Rouge several times in the past. Any good stories from the Red Stick?

If memory serves me well, the last time we were in Baton Rouge, we were stopped by one of the city’s finest for doing something to the tune of 100 miles an hour.

Your latest album is called Bastardos. Are you saying you’re a band of bastards?

At one time, we toyed with the idea of releasing a record where our band name would be in Spanish. This never happened for one reason or another, and so when working on an album title for this record, we decided we wanted to show our love for Spanish culture in some way, while also acknowledging that in order to make the record and the music you want to make, you’ve got to have a little bastard lurking in you somewhere. And so Bastardos was born.

Who do you consider to be the harmonica greats?

Sugar Blue, Howard Levy, Robert Randolph, Stevie Wonder, just to name a few.

How did you learn to play?

Trial and error mostly, I just kept at it until things started sounding right. Advice for anyone who wants to learn how to play the harmonica: It’s a lot like kissing, the more you do it, the better you get.

After the early rock-n-roll and folk of the ‘60s and ‘70s, do you think the harp is an underappreciated instrument in contemporary music today?

There was actually a great harp presence in the ‘30s, ‘40s, and even ‘50s. In terms of the ‘90s and even today, I’ve been working too hard to notice what’s going on with the harmonica.

What is it like being in a different town each night on a long tour?

Most of the time it’s a great escape.

What do you do on the road to keep your sanity and have some fun?

The “code of the bro” prohibits me from divulging the myriad of ways that Blues Traveler has fun on the road. You must take my word on this, it’s the best time you’d ever have.