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By Jerry Shriver, USA TODAY

BOSTON — The band leader wanders into a hotel lounge for an afternoon appointment sounding groggy and hoarse, sporting a thick dark stubble, craving coffee and seeming to validate all of those clichés about a musician's life on the road.

But Dave Matthews' condition can't be blamed on cruising the city's underbelly until the wee hours. On the eve of the first of two sold-out shows at Fenway Park last weekend, the famously normal singer/songwriter and father of three was in bed, where he would "roll and read, roll and read," fretting over the reception that awaited the retooled and re-energized Dave Matthews Band and the material from Big Whiskey & the GrooGrux King, the group's first studio album in four years, out today.

'BIG WHISKEY': Read the review

September 20th, 2007

by Mark Manley,

Intricate, eclectic and smooth, the latest Dave Matthews album, "Live at Radio City Music Hall," could be one of the best albums you buy this year.

Matthews pairs up again with Tim Reynolds in his latest solo release for a very distinctive listen. Reynolds accounts for much of this undeniably different touch through his virtuoso guitar accompaniment and rambling forays into ambient sounds.

He sometimes strays from the bounds of the typical tonal music that most people are accustomed to and enters into a strange experimental zone - leaving the listener a little perplexed and uncomfortable. Thankfully these moments don't last long, but they leave a lasting impression.

The great chemistry between Matthews and Reynolds is impressive. Matthews gives a great vocal performance, nailing both falsettos and screams in well-known songs like "Crash Into Me" and "Don't Drink the Water." Meanwhile, Reynolds keeps up a subtle, ornate background - an accompaniment that pleases but does not distract.

March 8th, 2007

Over the course of six albums, Dave Matthews has achieved so much more than success. The South African born singer has proved that an average-looking, everyday-kinda guy can compete with the image obsessed waifs on the charts. He's brought back the improvisational jam band after the demise of The Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia. He's introduced the world to Vusi Mahlasela. And he's given the flute its rightful place on the top 40.

But while the mainstream popularity of Matthews' folk-jazz-blues-rock might still be surprising to some, 'The Best Of What's Around' reveals just why the Durban boy has hit it so big: he and his band have produced some genuinely good songs — musically ambitious but irresistibly appealing.

March 8th, 2007

BY BECCA FULTON

The Dave Matthews Band recently released a double-disc, greatest-hits album called "The Best of What's Around." The album consists of one disc that is primarily studio-recorded hits and another of select live tracks.

At first glance, the live disc's eight songs seemed rather meager. But after listening, I realized it isn't just an eight-song disc--there are countless extras, solos and crowd interactions that make this second disc an experience in and of itself.

If there is one thing that makes this collection phenomenal, it would be the thought-out transitions from song to song.

September 26th, 2006 

by Thom Jurek

The sixth volume in the Dave Matthews Band's Live Trax series is a whopping four-disc box. It's sold fairly cheap — $29.98 — and there are no frills. It contains two complete concerts recorded in July of 2006 at Fenway Park in Boston. Like the other recordings in this series, the sound is gorgeous.

The track selection between the two evenings contains no song duplications. Trumpeter Rashawn Ross guests on the majority of the tunes, and keyboard wiz Butch Taylor is here throughout. Of the two performances, the July 7th gig is more passionate and has a more upbeat feel, especially on the raw, from-the-heart version of "Crash into Me," which contains a riff from Lowell George's "Dixie Chicken," and what immediately follows, in "Jimi Thing," where Stephen Stills' "For What It's Worth" makes an appearance. (The latter worked better when Robert Randolph guested on it to dress it up.) It's a more song-oriented gig in general, though there are four long jams in the first concert.