About
Dave Matthews Band, also known by the initials DMB, is an American band that was formed in Charlottesville, Virginia in 1991. Dave Matthews is the front man, guitarist, and singer-songwriter of the popular grassroots group. Dave Matthews, worked in Charlottesville, Virginia, and became friends with legal advisor Ross Hoffman. Hoffman convinced Matthews to record a demo of the songs he had written. The founding members were singer-songwriter and guitarist Dave Matthews, bassist Stefan Lessard, drummer and backing vocalist Carter Beauford and saxophonist LeRoi Moore.
The band’s first in-studio demo was recorded in February/March 1991. They still did not have an official name for the band. One name that was considered was “Dumwelah”, which is the Tswana word for “hello”, but there was little enthusiasm for the name, and they decided against it. One story is that Moore reportedly telephoned a place they were booked and said to write “Dave Matthews.” The person receiving the call wrote “band” after the name, and the name stayed Dave Matthews Band from that point on.
The band used grassroots showcasing to move the band to the national stage.
On November 9, 1993, DMB released its first official album, “Remember Two Things”, on its Bama Rags label, later re-released it by RCA in 1997.
The band appeared on college charts as the most noteworthy independent entry and received certified platinum by the RIAA in 2002.The band released their first live EP, named Recently, in 1994.
On September 20, 1994, DMB released their first studio collection, “Under the Table and Dreaming”, which reached to number 11 in the Billboard 200. The band’s second album, Crash, was released after two years, appearing at No. 2. Despite that the album didn’t get as much critical acclaim, the band’s follow-up concert sold-out New York’s Madison Square Garden in three hours.
On October 28, 1997, the band released their first full-length live album, Live at Red Rocks and without any advertising or promotion and topped the charts at third place.
In late 1997, the band came back to the studio with producer Steve Lillywhite. They composed and recorded “Before These Crowded Streets”, their third album with RCA, which was released on April 28, 1998, and debuted at number 1.
The next album was postponed over and over before the band declared in 2000 that they would be scrapping it and going separate ways with producer Steve Lillywhite. After that they asked Glen Ballard, who had worked with Alanis Morissette and Aerosmith. They recorded “Everyday” with Ballard. The singles “I Did It”, “Everyday”, and “The Space Between” all charted on many Billboard’s charts, including Hot 100 and Top 40. The following year, Busted Stuff delivered a smoother, jazzier sound and a similarly successful debut. Their 2005 album, Stand Up, topped the Billboard charts in its first week.
On September 23, 2003, Some Devil, Dave Matthews first solo album was released and sold 469,000 duplicates in the opening week.
The album’s sinister lead single, “Gravedigger” won Matthews another Grammy Award. In a sudden move, Matthews tried his hand at acting in 2003. He made his appearance in the Disney film Where the Red Fern Grows, and after that followed with Because of Winn-Dixie (2005), co-starring Jeff Daniels and Eva Marie Saint.
