Dave Matthews Band,
sometimes shortened to DMB, is an American band
formed in Charlottesville, Virginia
in 1991. Founding members were
singer-songwriter and
guitarist Dave Matthews,
bassist Stefan
Lessard,
violinist Boyd Tinsley,
drummer
Carter Beauford, and
saxophonist LeRoi
Moore. In August of 2008,
LeRoi
Moore died due to complications from an ATV accident.
Grammy Award-winner
Jeff
Coffin, of
Béla
Fleck and the Flecktones, has since filled Moore's spot as the
band's
saxophonist. With band members
who each have roots in differing genres, including
jazz,
classical music,
soul music,
bluegrass, and
hip-hop, the combination of each member has
created an eclectic sound which has earned them fans from a variety
of quarters.
The band is known for their annual summer-long tours of the US and
Europe, featuring lengthy improvisational renditions of their
songs, accompanied by elaborate video and lighting. The band's
newest album,
Big
Whiskey and the GrooGrux King debuted at number one on
Billboard 200, giving the band their fifth consecutive number one
debut.
The band is a multi-
Grammy Award
winner, and was awarded the
NAACP
Chairman's Award. According to
Julian
Bond, "they sell out the largest arenas on Earth, but
frequently give their music away."
History
Songwriter
David John Matthews, working in Charlottesville Virginia as a bartender at
Miller's bar in November 1990, made friends with a lawyer named Ross
Hoffman. Hoffman convinced Matthews, usually reserved and
scared of playing in front of people, to lay down a demo of the few
songs he had written. Hoffman hoped Matthews could shop the songs
in order to find other musicians to perform on some studio work
with him. Hoffman encouraged Matthews to approach
Carter Beauford, a local
drummer on the Charlottesville music scene.
Beauford had been in several bands and was then playing on a
jazz show on
BET. After hearing the demo,
Carter agreed to spend some time playing the drums, both inside and
outside the studio. Matthews also approached
LeRoi Moore, another local
jazz musician who often performed with the
John D'earth Quintet to join them. Moore
skeptically listened to the demo, but liked what he heard and
decided that he too would give the young
South African a chance. These three began
working on Matthews' songs in 1991. Matthews recollects that,
"...the reason I went to Carter was
not because I needed a
drummer, but because I thought he was the baddest thing I'd ever
seen and Leroi, it wasn't because I desperately wanted a
saxophone, it was because this guy just blew my
mind. At this jazz place I used to bartend at [Miller's], I would
just sit back and watch him. I would be serving the musicians fat
whiskeys and they'd be getting more and more hosed, but no matter
how much, he used to still blow my mind. And it was the sense that
everyone played from their heart. And when we got together and they
asked, 'What do you want the music to sound like?' I said, 'I know
this is a song I wrote and I like what you guys play, so I want you
to play the way you react to my song.' There was a lot of breaking
of our inhibitions."
Matthews later said in an interview with Michael Krugman, "In a
way, initially it was just the three of us and I approached them
with this tape and they said 'Sure,' cause they had time on their
hands. They were both working on other things, but they had some
afternoon time." The beginning stages of this new band was, in the
words of Morgan Delancey, "a time of trial and incubation."
Beauford would later recall that, "It started out as a three-piece
thing with Dave and Leroi...working on some of Dave's songs. He
only had four songs at the time..And it didn't work out with the
three of us." Matthews said, "The first time we played
together...we were awful. Not just kind of bad, I mean heinously
bad. We tried a couple of different songs and they were all
terrible...Sometimes it amazes me that we ever had a second
rehearsal."
Their limited instrumentals, however, did not provide the full
sound they desired; more musicians were needed.
Secrets was a former
jazz fusion band based in Richmond,
Virginia
most notable for having LeRoi Moore and Carter
Beauford as members before forming the Dave Matthews
Band. Moore's former bandmate, John D'earth,
conductor of the University of Virginia
Orchestra
and local musician, taught music at the Tandem Friends
School
. Stefan
Lessard, a junior
bassist at the
time, was under his guidance in the student jazz combo, Yabanci
Jazzites. On the recommendation of John D’earth, the 16-year-old
Lessard was asked to join in the studio to help complete the demo.
While the partnership was never intended to continue beyond the
studio, the four liked the sound and decided to continue together
for live performances as well. Consequently, regular practices
began in the basement of Carter Beauford's and Matthews' mother's
home.
Peter Griesar was a bartender at
Miller's beginning in 1989, and in August 1991, during Miller's
annual respite for inventory, Matthews, Beauford, Moore and Lessard
used the empty bar for rehearsing. Griesar heard them rehearsing
and decided to stop working for a while, pulled out his
harmonica, and started playing with them. After a
few songs, he was invited to perform with them. He immediately
accepted, becoming the band's first
keyboardist. Griesar's last show with the band
was March 23, 1993.
Boyd Tinsley was the last member to
join the band. Although he had performed on the demo with Matthews,
Moore, Beauford and Lessard, he was busy with a couple of other
bands at the time (Boyd Tinsley Band and Down Boy Down) and did not
want to commit to a group of musicians that were only together in
the studio at the time. He didn't become a full-time member until
the middle of 1992. Matthews later admitted, "We had no plans of
adding a
violinist. We just wanted some
fiddle tracked on this one song "
Tripping Billies", and Boyd was a friend of
Leroi. He came in and it just clicked. That completely solidified
the band, gave it a lot more power."
Early years
The band's first in-studio
demo was
recorded in February or March 1991, and consisted of "The Song That
Jane Likes," "Recently," and "Tripping Billies" prior to Tinsley
joining as a full-time bandmember. Tinsley only performed on
"Tripping Billies."
Their first public show was at the city's 1991
Earth Day Festival. Local weekly appearances soon
followed, and within a short time word of the band’s sound
spread.
They still did not have a name for the band. One name that was
thrown around was Dumela (which is the
Tswana word for "hello",) but no real
enthusiasm was ever felt, and they dropped it. One story is that
Moore reportedly telephoned a place they were booked and said to
just write 'Dave Matthews.' The person receiving the call just
wrote 'band' after the name, and the name stayed Dave Matthews Band
from that point on. Matthews told Robert Trott of AP, "Boyd
[Tinsley], if memory serves, wrote 'Dave Matthews Band [on this
flyer for the show]. There was no time when we said, 'Let's call
this band the Dave Matthews Band.' It just became that, and it sort
of was too late to change when we started thinking that this could
focus unfairly on me. People sort of made that association, but
it's really not like that."
Beauford seemed to agree with Matthews' analysis of the band name
when he said to
Modern
Drummer magazine that, "As a matter of fact, that's one of
the things about this band that everybody likes: There isn't a
leader. Each one of us can express ourselves musically without
being choked by a leader. Everybody can offer what they feel is
gonna enhance the music. So yeah, that's the main thing that all
the guys — especially me — feel make this band happen. It's the
freedom that we have to speak with our instruments."
By the summer of 1991, they were playing at Eastern Standard with
Charles Newman as their manager for a brief time. They were also
playing a regular Tuesday night show at the popular Charlottesville
club
Trax. Tapings of shows at Trax
are some of the most widely shared among DMB fans. After Newman,
Coran Capshaw, owner of the Flood Zone
where the band often played, took the helm of The Dave Matthews
Band.
For a variety reasons, like sensing that the band was on the verge
of making it big, not wanting to have his life ruled by the
grueling schedule that touring musicians often face, difficulties
communicating with Matthews, and maintaining the mortgage on his
new home,
Peter Griesar decided to
leave the band after a show at
Trax
nightclub on March 23, 1993, a night known as "Big League
Chew".Delancey, Morgan,
Dave Matthews Band: Step Into The
Light, page 104, ECW Press, 2001
On November 9, 1993, DMB released its first album,
Remember Two Things, on its Bama
Rags label, later re released by RCA in 1997.
Live songs on the
album were recorded at The Flood Zone in Richmond,
Virginia on August 10, 1993, and The Muse Music Club on
Nantucket
Island
on August 16-18, 1993. The album debuted on
college charts as the highest independent entry, and went on to be
certified platinum by the RIAA in 2002 — a significant
accomplishment for an independent album. Meanwhile, the band kept
touring and its fan base continued to grow. By allowing fans to
tape shows for their personal use, DMB created a highly interactive
community that continues to this day. Only recently has the band
had to take legal action against some bootleggers who sell
recordings of their concerts at a profit — something the DMB
trading community also abhors.
Mid-to-late nineties
The band released their first live
EP,
entitled
Recently, in 1994.
The
album's five tracks were taken from shows performed at The Birchmere
, in Alexandria, Virginia
, and from Trax, in
Charlottesville. This EP featured the first recorded version
of
Bob Dylan's classic "
All Along the Watchtower" and
"
Halloween."
Recently was re-released by
RCA
Records in 1997.
On September 20, 1994, DMB released their second album,
Under the Table and
Dreaming, featuring their first commercial hits "
What Would You Say" (featuring
John Popper on harmonica), "
Satellite," and
"
Ants Marching." The album was
dedicated "In memory of Anne" for Matthews' older sister Anne, who
was killed by her husband in 1994 in a
murder-suicide.
Under the Table and Dreaming and its follow-up album,
Crash
brought the band national attention, culminating in a
Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with
Vocal for "
So Much to Say" as
well as four other nominations between the years 1996 and 1997. The
band also achieved hits with "
Crash into
Me," "
Too
Much," and "
Tripping Billies."
While the band enjoyed growing commercial success and the devotion
of fans, among critics, they still suffered from (largely negative)
comparisons to jam band legends like
The Grateful Dead.
By 1997, DMB reached unparalleled levels of popularity across the
United States and, to some degree, the world. On October 28, 1997,
the band released their first full length live album,
Live at Red Rocks 8.15.95.
The album,
which was recorded at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre
in Morrison
, Colorado
, featured popular songs from the band's first three
albums and included longtime collaborator Tim Reynolds on electric guitar.
In late 1997, the band returned to the studio with producer
Steve Lillywhite and an array of
guest collaborators, including Reynolds,
banjoist Béla Fleck,
vocalist
Alanis Morissette, future
permanent keyboardist and unofficial sixth band member
Butch Taylor, and the
Kronos Quartet. They composed and recorded
Before These Crowded
Streets, their third album with RCA, which was released on
April 28, 1998. The album represented a great change in direction
for the band as they did not rely on upbeat hit singles to carry
the album. "
Stay ", an uplifting
gospel number, and "
Crush", a love
ballad, became very popular tracks along with
the lead single "
Don't Drink the
Water". Dave Matthews has commented that the
inspiration for this song came from the treatment of
Native
Americans by the United States government.
On January
19, 1999, Matthews and Reynolds released the live album,
Live at Luther
College, from a February 6, 1996, acoustic concert played
by Matthews and Reynolds at Luther
College in Decorah
, Iowa
. The
album features songs mostly from DMB's first two albums, while also
featuring the previously unreleased pieces "Deed Is Done" and
"Little Thing". Also included on the album is Reynolds' acoustic
virtuoso piece "Stream."
During the summer, the band took part in the
Woodstock '99 concert and then released their
third live album,
Listener
Supported, in the fall.
The album, a live recording, used a show
performed at the Continental Airlines Arena
in East Rutherford
, New
Jersey
on September 11, 1999 for a PBS
television special. The album was also released as the
band's first DVD. The year also provided two more Grammy
nominations.
Early 2000s
During 2000, DMB set up their own recording studio at a large
countryside home outside Charlottesville. With longtime producer
Lillywhite at the helm, the band began work on a fourth studio
album. Heavily influenced by personal conflicts, notably the death
of Matthews' uncle from alcoholism, the songs recorded with
Lillywhite rank as some of the darkest he has ever written. In the
end, the studio sessions were scrapped and the band's seven-year
relationship with Lillywhite was over. Some believe DMB was unhappy
with the atmosphere of the songs and frustrated with Lillywhite's
often perfectionist style of production, while others believe
Lillywhite was made into a scapegoat for the band's lack of
professionalism during the recording sessions. Or, as Matthews was
quoted as saying, he was in a depressive state and BMG kept asking
him for happy music.
In October 2000, an energized Matthews began writing with
Glen Ballard, most famous for his work with
Alanis Morissette.
The rest of DMB
(along with special guest Carlos
Santana) soon joined Matthews in a Los Angeles
studio and quickly recorded Everyday.
While the album gave the band a much-needed fresh start, Ballard's
slick pop-music approach to production was very different from the
creative process used to produce previous studio albums. Carter
Beauford has said that the album was a product of Matthews and
Ballard and that it did not showcase the rest of the band. The
February 27, 2001, release of
Everyday was a huge
commercial success. The singles
"I Did It",
"Everyday", and
"The Space Between", brought the
band an even larger level of popularity. However, some long-time
members of the fanbase were disappointed with the release.
Everyday's slick pop sound (including Dave Matthews' first
ever recording sessions on electric guitar) was a big departure
from the band's previous work and highly divergent from the songs
recorded with Lillywhite.
Certain songs such as "What You Are" and "When The World Ends" kept
a darker edge to them, and have been more well received by older
DMB fans. "Everyday" was also familiar to older DMB fans, as the
main guitar lick is derived from that of the song "#36."
In March 2001, the Lillywhite conflict came full circle when the
2000 studio sessions with the producer were leaked over the
internet. The tracks spread quickly over established internet
channels such as
Napster. Collectively known
as
The Lillywhite
Sessions, these tracks were lauded by both the fan base
and the popular press. After critical comparison of the two
simultaneous albums, fans that were less than pleased with
Everyday's slicker sound were frustrated with the band's decision
to scrap the work in exchange for
Everyday.
The
Lillywhite Sessions would, however, eventually be
officially released. In response to overwhelming fan support,
coupled with a popular and widely publicized online campaign known
as the
Release Lillywhite Recordings Campaign, DMB
returned to the studio in 2002 to record
Busted Stuff. Produced by
Stephen Harris, the recording
engineer who worked under Lillywhite on previous albums, the
resulting CD provided new treatments of much of the
Lillywhite
Sessions material, along with newly written songs "You Never
Know" and the single
"Where Are You
Going" which was subsequently used in the movie
Mr. Deeds.
Busted Stuff hit the
shelves on July 16, 2002, receiving moderate critical and
commercial success, while being generally well-received by the
band's fans.
During these two years the band released two live albums. The
first,
Live in Chicago
12.19.98, features
Tim
Reynolds on guitar as well as many other special guests such as
bassist
Victor Wooten and saxophonist
Maceo Parker. The second,
Live at Folsom Field,
Boulder, Colorado, highlights songs from both
Everyday and
Busted Stuff and was released as
both a CD and a DVD.
Solo Albums (2003)
In the Spring of 2003, Matthews and Reynolds embarked on another
successful solo acoustic tour. The shows are very different from
the normal DMB shows in that the venues were usually more intimate,
and the song selection is very different. The shows are also noted
for Reynolds' virtuoso guitar work.
In 2003 Matthews and Tinsley released their first solo albums.
Tinsley released
True Reflections
on June 17, 2003.
On September 23, 2003, Dave Matthews released his first solo album,
Some Devil. The album's lead
single, "
Gravedigger" won
Matthews another
Grammy Award. The
album was followed by the Dave Matthews & Friends tour.
The next
day, September 24, DMB played a free concert on the Great Lawn in
New York
City
's Central
Park
.
Live Trax & Stand Up (2004-2005)
The
Gorge, a combination 2-CD/1-DVD set with highlights from
their 3-night 2002 tour closer at The Gorge Amphitheatre
in George
, Washington
was released on June 29, 2004.
Later in the year it was announced that highlights from the Band's
extensive live archives would be available for purchase via the
official website. The first such release,
Live Trax Vol. 1, was released on November 2, 2004
and was their performance at the Centrum Center
in Worcester
, Massachusetts
on December 8, 1998.
On
September 12, 2004, DMB played their second benefit show in less
than a year, with a free show at Golden Gate Park
in San
Francisco
. This
concert drew one of their largest crowds and produced a popular
bootleg. The band was joined by guitarist
Carlos Santana on many songs, and the tracks
led to the second release in the Live Trax Series,
Live Trax Vol. 2 released on December 17, 2004. The
album gave fans previews of newly-penned songs "Joy Ride", "Hello
Again", and "Sugar Will"; all at the time presumed to be destined
for release on a new studio album in 2005. However, only "Hello
Again" was actually included on the subsequent album release,
Stand Up.
In August
2004, DMB was at the center of a controversy when about 800 pounds
of liquid human waste was dumped from band member Boyd Tinsley's
tour bus through the grate in the Kinzie Street Bridge in Chicago
onto passengers aboard a sightseeing boat on the
Chicago
River
below. The bus driver, Stefan Wohl, pleaded
guilty, and the band has donated $50,000 to the Friends of the
Chicago River and $50,000 to the
Chicago Park District. In April 2005,
the band paid $200,000 to settle the civil lawsuit that
followed.
In Fall 2004, DMB returned to their studio in Charlottesville,
Virginia with a new producer, Mark Batson.
Stand Up was
released on May 10, 2005, debuting at #1 on the Billboard charts
with sales of 465,000.
Stand Up spawned the singles
"American Baby", "
Dreamgirl", and
"Everybody Wake Up". The band also released a video for
"Dreamgirl", featuring
Julia Roberts,
a long-time fan of the band.
During March 2005, Dave Matthews Band arrived on Australian shores
for the first time, playing shows in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane,
and Byron Bay [East Coast Blues and Roots Festival].
The band
supported the album with a summer-long tour culminating in a
four-night stand at Colorado's Red Rocks Amphitheatre.
2006-2007
Dave
Matthews made several appearances in the UK
during the
Spring of 2006, notably performing a solo show at the King's
College Student Union (Tutu's) on February 28, followed by a small
solo tour to promote the release of Stand Up in the
UK.
On April 25, 2006, Dave Matthews Band announced a $1.5 million
challenge grant to help build the New Orleans Habitat
Musicians' Village.
The band returned to
the studio in March 2006 (with the resultant album slated for
release in winter) before embarking on their annual summer tour,
which concluded with a two-night stand in the band's hometown of
Charlottesville, Virginia. This tour featured the addition of
trumpeter Rashawn Ross
as a full-time touring member, which he has remained since. Ross,
who received recognition with DMB's fans while playing with the
jazz band
Soulive, had guested during
several shows the previous year.
In August, Dave Matthews Band announced on their website that, in
order to fulfill a contractual obligation, they would be releasing
a greatest hits album. They held a survey on their website that
encouraged fans to select their ten favorite DMB songs. The album,
titled
The Best of
What's Around Vol. 1, named after the
opening track of 1994's
Under The Table And Dreaming, was
released on November 7, 2006. The album features two discs, the
first consisting of what the band considers their best studio
tracks, and the second of live tracks voted on by fans.
Additionally, those who pre-ordered the CD on the Dave Matthews
Band website received an "encore" CD with four additional live
songs. The Encore CD was later made available on their website to
anyone for an additional $10.
The band worked with
Reverb, a
non-profit
environmental
organization, for their 2006 summer tour.
Their Labor Day
concert at The Gorge
Amphitheatre drew a crowd of 64,468, the largest ever for that
venue
In early 2007, the Dave Matthews Band once again entered the studio
with producers Mark Batson and
Steven
Miller to begin recording their seventh studio album. Mark
Batson's relationship was severed at some point during the
recording process, and the album was not finished. In late
February, Dave Matthews embarked on a short tour of Europe with Tim
Reynolds, which was followed in April by three dates in the
northeastern United States.
On April 25, 2007, it was announced on the band's website that the
Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds performance at Radio City Music Hall
that had been recorded earlier that week on the 22nd would be
released on CD, Blu-ray Disc and DVD, the duo's second release
(following
Live at Luther
College). It includes unreleased songs, such as "Eh Hee" and
"Corn Bread", and also two Tim Reynolds songs which he performed
alone, "Betrayal" and "You Are My Sanity".
According to
Billboard
magazine, the band's new studio album had been scheduled to be
released in July by
RCA Records, but in
an interview with the Brisbane Times on May 4, 2007,
Stefan Lessard stated, "We’re on a bit of a
creative break as far as working in the studio – we’ve been in
pre-production for a long time, but we’ll get more serious later in
the year."
On July
7, 2007, Dave Matthews Band performed on the American Live Earth concert at Giants Stadium
.
On
September 6, 2007, Dave Matthews Band performed a free concert for
the Virginia
Tech
student body and faculty. The show was
entitled "A Concert for Virginia Tech" and was done in memory of
the shootings that took place on April 16, 2007.
John Mayer,
Phil
Vassar, and
Nas joined them. There were over
50,000 people in attendance.
Two days later, they performed a benefit
show at Atlanta's Piedmont
Park
with the Allman
Brothers Band opening. Though only 65,000 tickets were
sold (50,000 originally, then a second block of 15,000) nearly
20,000 people snuck into the show, making it the largest one-day
concert in Atlanta history. The show raised money for the Piedmont
Park Conservancy Association. It was released as a CD/DVD called
Live at Piedmont Park.
In a news article posted on August 30 on the official site, it was
announced that a video for the song "Eh Hee" would be released for
free download on the
iTunes Store
starting September 4, and remaining free throughout the week until
it would be made available for purchase. The recording and video is
a result of a solo effort by Dave Matthews, and does not include
the other band members.
2008 and the death of LeRoi Moore
On March 6, 2008, it was revealed that the band had been working
with
Rob Cavallo on their next album,
Big Whiskey and
the GrooGrux King. It was also mentioned that guitarist
and longtime friend
Tim Reynolds would
be recording with the band on the new studio album. Reynolds would
also join the band for their subsequent summer tour.
On April 6, Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds performed an acoustic
concert at Indiana University entitled "Rock for Change" in support
of Barack Obama's presidential campaign.
They also played a
benefit show for the Seeds of Compassion initiative on April 11 at
KeyArena
in Seattle, part of the five-day celebration that
week centered on the Dalai Lama.
This was
followed by two nights at the Fifth Annual Kokua Festival on April
19 and 20 at the Waikiki Shell in Honolulu, Hawaii
. These shows were part of a benefit for the
Kokua Hawai'i Foundation, created by
Jack Johnson and his wife Kim to
benefit Hawaii's educational system.
On May 27, three days before the band embarked on their annual
summer tour, it was announced that keyboardist
Butch Taylor, who had toured with the band
since 2001, had decided to leave the band.
The Dave
Matthews Band played their last
show with all five original members on June 28 at the Nissan
Pavilion
in Bristow,
Virginia
. Two days later saxophonist
LeRoi Moore was injured in an ATV accident on
his farm near Charlottesville, Virginia. On July 1, 2008 while in
Charlotte, Dave Matthews announced Moore's accident.
Béla Fleck and the
Flecktones saxophonist
Jeff Coffin
filled in for Moore for the remainder of the tour. Though he was
expected to make a full recovery, Moore died suddenly of
complications from the accident on August 19. The following
statement was released on the band's website:
We are deeply saddened that LeRoi Moore, saxophonist and founding
member of Dave Matthews Band, died unexpectedly Tuesday afternoon,
August 19, 2008, at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los
Angeles from sudden complications stemming from his June ATV
accident on his farm near Charlottesville, Virginia. LeRoi had
recently returned to his Los Angeles home to begin an intensive
physical rehabilitation program.
The band went ahead with a scheduled show at the Staples Center in
Los Angeles, where Matthews announced the death of the band's "dear
friend" to the crowd.
Despite Moore's death, the band continued to play the rest of the
tour, cancelling only two shows.
They concluded the tour with a benefit
concert for lung cancer research (Stand Up For A Cure) at Madison
Square Garden
in New York City on September 10, for which tickets
were exclusive to members of the band's fan club,
Warehouse.
Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King (2009)
The band's newest album, titled
Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux
King, was released on June 2, 2009, coinciding with a
supporting summer tour, slated to run through early October. The
band named their most recent album in honor of Moore. Tim Reynolds,
Rashawn Ross and Jeff Coffin are scheduled to perform with the band
on both the spring and the summer tours.
The album peaked at number one on the Billboard 200, achieving
platinum status. To date, three singles have been released, Funny
The Way It Is, Why I Am, and You And Me.
Taping and bootlegs
Dave Matthews Band allows audience members to record most live
shows and permits non-profit trading of the recordings. The band
cites college students trading these tapes in the early 1990s as a
key reason for their current fame. Up until February 23, 1995 the
band allowed
tapers to plug directly
into the soundboard at shows but after profiteering on these often
high quality tapings, the taping policy was changed to only include
microphones. The band and its management also worked with the US
federal government in 1996 to launch a crackdown on for-profit
bootleggers, which resulted in
large-scale arrests of those responsible for illegally
manufacturing and selling copies of DMB material. To further combat
bootleggers, the band released their first live album,
Live at Red Rocks 8.15.95, to
satisfy the demand for live recordings.
In recent years it has been common to see several sources per show,
sometimes as many as five or more. As microphones and recording
equipment have become more inexpensive and of higher quality, the
quality of tapings has improved.
Discography
Studio albums
Live albums
The band has also released several live albums in their
Live
Trax series which are currently available on their website.
There is also a download-only series,
DMBLive, which is
available on the band's website. See
Dave Matthews Band
discography for more information.
Compilation albums
Awards and nominations
Philanthropic efforts
According to the band's website, since 1999 the band has
contributed $4 million to the BAMA Works Fund. The BAMA Works Fund
supports projects addressing the needs of disadvantaged youth,
needs of the disabled, protection of the environment, and the arts
and humanities. This foundation only operates in the
Charlottesville, Virginia area.
References
- Dave Matthews Band | History, Bama Rags, Inc.,
http://www.davematthewsband.com/#/history
- Nevin Martell, Dave Matthews Band: Music for the
people, (New York: Pocket Books, 2004) 21
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