Dave Matthews

• Born: January 9, 1967
• Place of Birth: Johannesburg, South Africa

AMERICAN ROCK SINGER, SONGWRITER, AND GUITARIST

Matthews is noted for his percussive guitar-playing style, his unusual vocal timbre, and his penchant for incorporating a variety of stylistic influences to create his distinct sound.

MEMBER OF The Dave Matthews Band

The Life

David John Matthews was born to physicist John Matthews and architect-painter Val Matthews in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1967. In 1969 he relocated to suburban New York with his parents and three siblings. By age nine, Matthews had developed an ardent interest in music, and he began taking guitar lessons. Matthews returned to Johannesburg following his father’s untimely death in 1977, immersing himself in the works of local musicians while attending school.

In 1986 Matthews returned to the United States in order to avoid compulsory South African military service, which conflicted with the family’s religious philosophy. Matthews eventually settled in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he worked as a bartender at Miller’s, a pub frequented by prominent local musicians. Eager to develop his song sketches yet apprehensive about performing in public, he elicited the help of several of these artists, including percussionist Carter Beauford, violinist Boyd Tinsley, saxophonist Leroi Moore (who died in August 2008), and bassist Stefan Lessard, who formed the Dave Matthews Band. Matthews cofounded ATO Records in 2000. He is active as a singer, guitarist, and songwriter and continued to release new studio and live albums throughout the 2010 and into the 2020s. He moved to Seattle, Washington, with his wife, Ashley, and their three children.

The Music

Matthews’s musical style is noted for its eclecticism, drawing from Latin, African, jazz, folk, and rock influences, among others. While broadly described by many as a rock artist, Matthews and his music defy categorization. Within the context of the Dave Matthews Band as well as solo performance, Matthews’s music emphasizes complex, syncopated rhythmic patterns and frequent improvisation. Rhythmically, Matthews approaches the acoustic guitar as a percussion instrument, preferring syncopated attack patterns by way of closed harmonies rather than by way of open-chord strumming. This, combined with occasional scat singing and other vocalized percussive sounds, complements the busy, asymmetrical drum patterns of Beauford and funk-inspired bass lines of Lessard. The improvisatory element, immediately obvious in live performances, can also be heard in the studio. Collaborators typically bring their ideas to the songwriting process, treating the studio as a sort of extended jam session in expanding and refining Matthews’s initial sketches.

Early Works. Although Matthews had been performing with the Dave Matthews Band since 1991, no commercial recording was available until Remember Two Things. A mix of studio and live recordings, this album depicted the band in its purest form, with few effects mixed in the studio and no contributions from musicians outside of the core membership of the group. Songs here provided a basis for future work, as diverse stylistic influences were immediately apparent, from the Middle Eastern-influenced “Minarets” and a cover of Bob Dylan’s folk ballad, “Christmas Song,” to the lengthy, syncopated, and highly improvisatory epic, “Seek Up.” Several of the songs from this album were revised for later release.

“Ants Marching.” This was one of the band’s first major hits, a standard that Matthews performs. It was reworked from Remember Two Things to appear on the album Under the Table and Dreaming. Typical of much of Matthews’s output, the song employs a moderate tempo, syncopated rhythmic patterns, falsetto, percussive guitar textures and vocalizations, and a pronounced improvisatory character that often varies in performances.

“Crash into Me.” First released on the Crash recording in 1996, this is arguably the Dave Matthews Band’s most well-known song. While many typical musical features can be heard, the saxophone and violin take on subordinate roles, used primarily to add color to the overall texture. While some vocal improvisation is utilized in live performances, the song remains fairly consistent with the original recording.

“The Space Between.” This Everyday ballad represented a drastic stylistic departure. Notable are the absence of the acoustic guitar in favor of an electric, the somewhat simple rhythmic patterns, the nearly nonexistent saxophone and violin lines, and the prevalence of synthesizer effects. The result was more pop-oriented than previous work, and, along with other material from the album, it signaled a trend of experimentation with electronic and computer-generated studio effects, which continued on Stand Up.

“Bartender.” In the tradition of works such as “Seek Up,” this tumultuous Busted Stuff offering was originally scheduled for release on a discarded (now bootleg) collection dubbed The Lillywhite Sessions by fans in reference to former producer Steve Lillywhite. Notable are the song’s melancholy lyrics and extended, improvisatory coda, both of which in live performance continue to morph in terms of pitch content and solo-improvisatory characteristics.

“Gravedigger.” This live standard was originally released on Matthews’s first original solo album, Some Devil, in 2003. While much of the album departs from work with the band in terms of timbre and rhythmic characteristics of the accompaniment, this song is often performed with Matthews’s voice accompanied by only an acoustic guitar, an approach to performance that dates back to the early days of his career.

Musical Legacy

Matthews has sold more than thirty million albums. Matthews and the Dave Matthews Band have been nominated for and have won numerous awards, including a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for the song “So Much to Say” in 1997 and a Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for “Gravedigger” in 2004. Matthews was consistently listed among the top-grossing live acts for any given year. Matthews and the Dave Matthews Band follow the jam band tradition of such groups as the Grateful Dead, Phish, and Blues Traveler. They share with those groups a lenient policy on bootleg recordings, an improvisatory and audience-participatory performance aesthetic, and a fervent following of fans.

In 2023, the Dave Matthews Band released its tenth studio album, Walk Around the Moon. A year later, the band received one of the ultimate honors in music when it was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Principal Recordings

ALBUMS (solo): Some Devil, 2003.

ALBUMS (with Dave Matthews Band): Remember Two Things, 1993; Under the Table and Dreaming, 1994; Crash, 1996; Before the Crowded Streets, 1998; Everyday, 2001; Busted Stuff, 2002; Stand Up, 2005, Away from the World, 2012; Come Tomorrow, 2018; Walk Around the Moon, 2023

Bibliography

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"Dave Matthews Band." Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 2024, rockhall.com/inductees/dave-matthews-band/. Accessed 11 Oct. 2024.

Delancey, Morgan. The Dave Matthews Band: Step Into the Light. 2d ed. Toronto, Ont.: ECW Press, 2001.

Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Dave Matthews Band." All Music, 2024, www.allmusic.com/artist/dave-matthews-band-mn0000961234. Accessed 11 Oct. 2024.

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