This week I’m going for a bit of an oddball pick for me. It’s originally from 1990 but the song would gain a second life several years after its release through the wondrous mechanism of pop culture.

Blues Traveler got their start in the 1980’s and would offer up their debut album in 1990. It was a self-titled effort and, while it didn’t light the world on fire, the band did get play on college radio and the ball got rolling for them. But Anyway was the lead track from the record and, at the time it didn’t move mountains but did get some buzz on the independent circuit.

Irrelevant to the song but a fun bit of trivia – Joan Osborne provided backing vocals on two songs on the Blues Traveler debut record. This was all a few years before everyone would get famous.

But anyway, Blues Traveler would release a handful more albums up to their set four, released in 1994. This featured the song Run-Around, which became a top ten hit and instantly made the band a household name. The song won a Grammy and the album slammed sales racks for six million copies in the US.

Blues Traveler were now in demand across the spectrum. Their blend of alt-rock and jam band sensibilities gave them a very wide appeal, and one area they became very in-demand was movie soundtracks. Someone could write a decent-sized book on the number of soundtracks that Blues Traveler wound up on in the middle of the decade. The band was so in-demand that their old albums all hit gold in 1995 and movie makers revisited their old catalog for hidden gems to add to their films. This would give But Anyway a second life in a very memorable part in a fantastic film.

In 1996, the Farrelly Brothers released Kingpin. The movie was a dark comedy starring Woody Harrelson and Randy Quaid as an alcoholic, down on his luck bowler and an Amish bowling prodigy, respectively. It also featured Vanessa Angel as a whore and Bill Murray as a total asshole in a performance that should have won awards.

I won’t get too much into the movie but I will say Kingpin is absolutely worth a watch. I just went back and watched it for the first time in a long time very recently, when I knew I was going to cover this song. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll make damn sure to pay your rent on time.

Blues Traveler and But Anyway got big billing in the film – the band was featured at the end, dressed up in Amish garb and teaching the Amish village how to throw down. Singer John Popper also got a part as the host of the huge bowling tournament that’s pivotal to the movie. As you might have already ascertained from the video clip, footage from the movie is featured in the song’s music video as well.

All this, but how’s the actual song? But Anyway is a fun, upbeat dive into some mid-paced and music-filled blues rock. Lyrically it pokes fun at life’s silly situations in a playful manner. Musically the band shows off some real chops, including an extended breakdown/jam session that’s cut out of the single version. But there’s plenty of bass and harmonica fun to be had on the full studio cut.

But Anyway would wind up hitting the charts six years after its initial release. It hit number 5 on the Adult Alternative chart and 24 on the Mainstream Top 40 in 1996. Blues Traveler would go on to some more mainstream success through the rest of the 90’s. While they are now more of an independent act these days, the band has kept around all this time, including annual July 4^th performances at the famed Red Rocks amphitheater in Colorado.

Blues Traveler were all over the place in the mid-90’s and But Anyway is just one testament to their infectious hold on listeners’ ears around that time. It took a movie tie-in to bring this older song a new life but it was all pulled off splendidly, and we’re left with both a song and movie worth checking out.