About the Dave Matthews Band

The Dave Matthews Band (DMB) is an American band formed in Charlottesville, Virginia in 1991. The early Dave Matthews Band made a name for themselves via their live shows. In a very short time the band was playing regular gigs at major clubs in the Charlotte area.

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In 1993, the band released their first full length studio album, “Remember Two Things.” The album eventually went platinum—an incredible feat for an independent release. The album was also the only release to identify the band as “The” Dave Matthews Band.

In 1996, their second major label studio album, “Crash,” earned the band national fame and attention. "So Much to Say," a track from the album, won the 1997 Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.

Throughout the 1990’s DMB continued to draw big crowds at arenas and music festivals. Due to their improvisational-style live shows and their strenuous touring schedule, Dave Matthews Band was often compared to the Grateful Dead, a comparison usually meant as an insult.

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."

Learn more about the Dave Matthews Band on Wikipedia.