Many people are familiar with Dave Matthews and his band but many do not recognize his unique guitar style and skill that he has, as his work does not necessarily show it off. Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1967 and quickly moved to Westchester County, New York where his father who was previously a physicist in Africa, landed a job at IBM. In the early 70's he and his family moved to Cambridge, England but wound up moving back to New York a few years later, his father passed away in 1977. They moved back to Africa for several years where he was educated about the so called evil western world. His family moved to Charlottesville VA in 1986 , the place where his parents had lived before he was born. This move is probably the most important for his fans as this was where eventually he would encounter soon to be fellow band mates LeRoi Moore, Boyd Tinsley, Stephan Lessard and Carter Beauford who would eventually form Dave Matthews Band. For a number of years Matthews studied piano before taking up the guitar at age 9 and eventually became a part of the local music scene and wound up with the idea of starting his own band some day. Dave Matthews is one of the most unique guitarists to hit themusic scene ever. Ever since 1991 he has shown millions of people just how amazing of a guitarist he is. He has almost single handidly brought the acoustic rhythm guitar to the mainstream. Dave's style is an agressive, percussive type. He has an innate ability to mute almost any string he would like while still fully strumming either chords or single notes. If you ever watch Dave's right hand while he is playing, it barely ever stops moving. He strums his heart out on every song he plays. Even on songs like The Stone where Dave has to hit single notes, Dave's hand is moving like a butterfly. He hits all the notes and doesn't think twice.
Little did he realize that in 1991, the Dave Matthews Band would start to take form. It was in this year that Dave met jazz drummer Carter Beauford, classical violinist Boyd Tinsley, 16 year old bass prodigy Stephan Lessard and jazz saxophonist/floutist LeRoi Moore, as well as keyboardist Peter Grieser who dropped out later, and together they compiled their first album, Remember Two Things under the Bama Rags record label which was released in 1993. However Remember Two Things was not their debut album, it was just a independent album that they had put together. In 1994 under the RCA record label DMB put out Under The Table And Dreaming and in the summer of 1995 was declared 4 times platinum, just prior too the bands studio session for the upcoming album Crash which was released on April 30th 1996. In October of 1997 RCA and Bama Rags released the double disc Live at the Red Rocks 8-15-95 that was recorded at the Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Colorado two years earlier. In the spring of 98 DMB released Before These Crowded Streets and in 99 Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds released their duo acoustic album Live At Luther College, and as many know, Tim Reynolds has been a guest artist on many of DMB's albums and Tim has appeared as a guest artist for Dave numerous times. The 3rd live album to hit the scene was Listener Supported, which was recorded at the Continental Airlines Arena in New Jersey in September and launched in November, going double platinum as well. In 2001 the band came back with a smash with their juiced up half electric rock album Everyday, which included the gospel rock song of the same name, which was co produced by Glen Ballard who helped tighten things up, it was also the first time Dave ever played electric guitar on a album. The same year the Live in Chicago album was released which featured guests such as bassist Victor Wooten and a full set with Tim Reynolds as well. In 2002 DMB released their landmark album Busted Stuff. For the first time ever there were no guest artists on the album and some of the songs were road tested collaborations from fan favourites like Grey Street, Grace is Gone and Bartender. The 5th live album to hit the market was Live at Folsom Fields in Boulder Colorado 7-11-01 which was released in 2002. The 6th live session was the Central Park concert, which played to almost 100,000 people and raised over 2 million dollars for education and parks in the area. The summer/fall brang the release of Dave's 'solo' album Some Devil which included guests such as Trey Anastasio and Tim Reynolds among others, this in turn created the Dave Matthews and Friends tour which was to promote Some Devil, the hit single Gravedigger also won Dave a Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocalist. In the summer of 2005 Dave Matthews Band released their latest album Stand Up, proving once again that they still have the cutting edge of rockers, while maintaining a good acoustic style stance with their music.
Discography:
Remember Two Things (live) - 1993
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Under The Table And Dreaming - 1994
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Crash - 1996
Live at The Red Rocks 8-15-95 - 1997
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Before These Crowded Streets - 1998
Everyday - 2001
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Busted Stuff - 2002
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Stand Up - 2005
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Live in Chicago - 1998
Other Dave Matthews related albums
Live at Luther College: A Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds Performance - 1999
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Some Devil - 2003
Now available in wiki. 
