Blues Traveler [ tickets ] has lined up a series of warm-up shows leading to its July 4 return to the Red Rocks Amphitheatre. The band's seven-year stretch of Independence Day performances at the Denver-area venue was interrupted in 1999 by the health problems of frontman John Popper.

The band has kept publicity surrounding the warm-up shows to a minimum, releasing information only via its telephone hotline, its official website, and BluesTraveler.Net, a fan-operated website. With the exception of an amphitheater appearance in Milwaukee, all of the shows are club appearances.

The Red Rocks bill will feature Robert Bradley's Blackwater Surprise and Sonia Dada [ tickets ] in support slots. Opening acts haven't been confirmed for the tour's four other stops.

Blues Traveler is writing and recording its first album since the death of founding bassist Bobby Sheehan, and plans to release the new material sometime this year. The band hired bassist Tad Kinchla, brother of the group's guitarist Chan, to take Sheehan's slot last November. Sheehan died of a drug overdose last August.

The day after the Red Rocks appearance, Blues Traveler is scheduled to play in Boulder, Colo.