Charlottesville, VA · jam · roots rock · jam rock

Dave Matthews Band

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Violin, saxophone, and Matthews's rhythmic yelp — a jam institution whose setlists still never repeat, and whose players still surprise each other nightly.

Dave Matthews Band grew out of a push from a Charlottesville lawyer, Ross Hoffman, who convinced Dave Matthews, then bartending at Miller's, to record a demo of the handful of songs he had written. Matthews approached local jazz musicians Carter Beauford and LeRoi Moore in 1991, drawn less to their instruments than to how they played, and the three began shaping his songs together before adding bassist Stefan Lessard and violinist Boyd Tinsley.

The saxophone and violin gave the band an unusual shape for a rock group and pushed the music toward jazz phrasing and long instrumental stretches, with Carter Beauford's drumming and Dave Matthews's rhythmic, syncopated vocal delivery holding the songs together.

The band built its following through constant touring and tape trading long before major labels paid attention. Under the Table and Dreaming, the 1994 major-label debut, was certified six times platinum, and Crash extended that success, turning the group into a touring draw on a much larger scale.

Dave Matthews Band won the 1996 Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for "So Much to Say" and has sold more than 25 million concert tickets and 38 million albums and DVDs. Come Tomorrow, released in 2018, debuted at number one, making the band the first to send seven consecutive studio albums to the top of the Billboard 200. In 2024 the band was selected for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

LeRoi Moore died in 2008 and Boyd Tinsley left in 2018; Matthews, Lessard and Beauford remain the only original members still in the band. The current touring lineup adds extra horn and guitar players, and setlists still change substantially from night to night.

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