Cover Yourself

by Stephen Thomas Erlewine As the punning title indicates, Cover Yourself finds Blues Traveler reinterpreting and occasionally rearranging 11 of their songs, including the hits "Run-Around" and "Hook." Those two may hook in casual fans, but this isn't for them, of course: it's for those Blues Traveler fans who salivate at the possibility of the group reworking their catalog, particularly songs that are tucked away deep on their albums. For those fans, this is interesting...but perhaps not as interesting as they'd like. This isn't so much a collection of intensive jams as a relaxed, groove-oriented record where the electric piano overwhelms the acoustic guitars that form the bed of these tracks. As such, Cover Yourself isn't so much a reinvention -- despite the few times that the songs are turned inside out, including "Runaround," which now sports an entirely different verse riff, or how "Carolina Blues" is now stripped down to a Delta blues shuffle -- as a respite, a way for Blues Traveler to take things easy and find the groove within. There's a charm in that, for both the band and longtime fellow travelers, but right now it feels like an amiable scenic side road instead of a new direction for the band.