Dave Matthews Band Sings Away Their Woes
As Cervantes said, ¨He who sings scares away his woes.¨ Something Dave Matthews Band knows all too well as they kick off their summer 2009 tour, in the shadow of founding member and saxophonist Leroi Moore´s death last August.
The bands opening concert in Madison Square Garden, a huge draw as always, and their upcoming album, Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King, are ripe with strong influence and remembrance of the incredible saxophonist. Dave Matthews took time to recognize their brother, introducing Why I Am, the first song the band played from the new album due to drop June 2nd, as the ¨very, very favorite of our good friend Leroi Moore¨. The song was delivered spectacularly and received with incredible energy. As the band tested some of the new tracks on the audience, it was clear that everyone was excited about the album Moore and the rest of the band had worked so hard to put together before his death last summer.
In an interview with Billboard, Matthews talked about Leroi Moore´s excitement and desire to make the album a big success, describing Moore´s belief that Dave Matthews Band could and should be as good in the studio as they are in their reknowned live shows. When asked by Billboard about finishing the album so closely after Moore´s death, Dave Matthews responded, ¨I think it was real therapeutic… there were times when we really had time to think about him and be grateful for this time we had with him.¨ A beautiful outlook that shows how strongly Moore and all the members were tied together by making music together.
Last August, just hours after the announcement of Moore´s death, Dave Matthews Band took the stage with tears in their eyes, knowing even then the importance of celebrating their friend´s life through music and memory. The show Dave Matthews Band put on that night was felt by many as a true showing of music´s healing power. The concert was filled with favorite DMB including Bartender, Ants Marching, Everyday and Crash into me, but it was the bands determination to play through the pain and to play for their friend that made it a truly moving show. ¨It has not been a good day for us,¨ Matthews confessed, ¨but there's nobody I'd rather be with than all my family up here on the stage.¨
Big Whiskey and the Groogrux Kind, which begins with a sax solo by Moore, is filled with themes of life and death. But in his interview with Billboard, Matthews attests to its optimistic nature. ¨There´s no need to be lonely and overtly self indulgently mournful. That wouldn´t serve us, Roi or anybody.¨
There is a lot of pain and hardship in the world, but Matthews reminds us that there are beautiful things like music that can lift us out of our misery. ¨One of the things about playing music,¨ Matthews says, ¨is that it´s a source of joy. So even if we´re singing about death or loss or the end of the world, at the very core of everything, there´s got to be hope.¨
