Chan Kinchla, founding and current guitarist of Blues Traveler, will release his debut album under his own name, Mr. Sunshine, on Friday, Feb. 26, 2027. The 10-track record will be available on vinyl and across all digital platforms. Vinyl pre-orders are open now at ExperienceVinyl.com, and each one includes an exclusive photo autographed by Kinchla.
The lead single, “Golden Hour,” arrives Friday, Nov. 13. It is the earliest song written for the album and draws on a medical emergency Kinchla credits the staff at Nashville General Hospital’s ER with getting him through. “It’s not just about the golden hour at sunset,” he said. “It’s about being alive to see that after another golden hour altogether.”
After nearly four decades of high-volume jams alongside John Popper, Kinchla has turned to an acoustic-forward, lyric-driven sound. The album explores recovery, parenthood and starting a new chapter. The title comes from what his mom called him as a boy, and it took on new meaning after he got sober in January 2020. He calls it “a snappy and perhaps ironic name for a record whose subject matter is sometimes rather dark.”
Other songs look back and reflect. “Remains of the Day” reckons with friends he has lost to addiction, while “Rooftop Fireworks War” returns to his early days on New York’s Lower East Side in the late ’80s. Kinchla said he picked up an acoustic guitar the day he walked into rehab and promised himself he would play every day. “Which is a promise I kept,” he said.
The album grew out of his time fronting W4RHORS3 on 2024’s And The Horse They Rode In On. “I realized I really enjoy singing, which really propelled my songwriting,” Kinchla said. He also taught himself to fingerpick and dove into Elliott Smith’s catalog. “Next thing you know I had 40 songs,” he said.
Kinchla recorded the album in the winter of 2026 at Fox Force Five Recorders, producer JJ Blair’s studio in the Hollywood Hills. He built drum loops on his MPC and laid his Gibson J-45 over them, then Blair added bass before the two framed each track with atmospheric soundscapes and vocals. “We worked fast, and really the recording was about a song a day,” he said.
Kinchla wrote every song and co-produced the album with Blair, who engineered it with Gabi Lima and mixed it. Dave Collins mastered the record. Lima, Elle Bramhall and Andrea Whitt contribute vocals, drums, pedal steel and violins on select tracks, and Michael Cammarata designed the packaging.
Kinchla said the sound departs from improvisational jam rock without breaking from his roots. “Blues Traveler was always extremely focused on great songwriting, and honestly our hit ‘Run-Around’ has a very acoustic-based singer-songwriter vibe,” he said. “This is my take on that.” On the road, he will lean on the Los Angeles musicians he calls the Chan Gang, or play solo with his guitar and his drum machine, Gringo.
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