Dave Matthews Band- Under the Table and Dreaming 25th Anniversary

You may have been surprised to see the Dave Matthews Band among the nominees for induction this year into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, not for any lack of popularity or impact or influence, but simply because it doesn’t seem that they could possibly have met the minimum age requirements yet! But a quick check of the 25 year standard of the Rock Hall’s rules reveals that not only does the DMB qualify this year, looks like they are leading the early fan voting  and may actually go in on the first ballot. After meeting and interviewing Dave Matthews during the 1996 Horde Festival tour just as their second studio album, Crash,  was being released, none of the subsequent successes of the Dave Matthews Band since then has surprised me. 

Sure, the fun-loving good time swing in their first big hit “What Would You Say”, with the Olympian harmonica solo from Blues Traveler’s John Popper on the Dave Matthews Band’s second album Under the Table and Dreaming    got my immediate attention in 1994. But it was the musical sophistication of “Rhyme and Reason”, the sublime “Satellite”, and the inventive arrangement featuring woodwinds and violin on “Ants Marching” that announced that this crack musical collective had already passed “Go”, collected the $200, and never missed a beat. Dave Matthews was already a wise resident of the world with a maturity that belied his tender age when we had the chance to talk  backstage. With the twenty-fifth anniversary of Under the Table and Dreaming,   we dedicate this edition of In the Studio to band co-founder saxophonist the late LeRoi Moore. – Redbeard