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February 20th, 2001

Justin Bernick and Christa Dierksheide , Cavalier Daily Senior Writers

On the eve of the long-awaited and much hyped Scott Stadium concert, two diehard fans chronicle their quest to meet the elusive Dave Matthews

Justin Bernick and Christa Dierksheide , Cavalier Daily Senior Writers
courtesy coran capshaw

It all started one dark and stormy afternoon in the newsroom in the basement of Newcomb Hall. With the big Dave Matthews Band show coming up this weekend, everyone had Dave on the brain, including us. Suddenly, a burning desire roiled deep within our souls - we had to find Dave!

Like any good reporter, the first thing we did was pick up the phone. We called publicists, "secret" contacts, administrators, and even used passwords to try to come into contact with the mythical rock star himself. But it was all to no avail.

Hundreds of phone calls later, we still found ourselves twiddling our pencils and notepads at a complete dead end. We slowly began to ask ourselves, "Does this man truly exist?"

March 8th, 2001

U.Va. School Of Engineering Receives Gift For Materials Science Lab In Memory Of John W. Matthews

The family of the late John W. Matthews, a former postdoctoral researcher at the University of Virginia and a groundbreaking materials researcher, has pledged $500,000 in his memory to the School of Engineering and Applied Science. Matthews, whose son is the rock music composer and performer Dave Matthews, was an IBM Corporation research scientist who had a long-term research affiliation with the Engineering School.

January 12, 2001

_{By Cecily Barnes Staff Writer, CNET News.com}

The Dave Matthews Band has released a single on Napster in what is the first official promotion by a BMG Entertainment-backed act to tap the controversial file-swapping service.

The band's single "I Did It" is prominently displayed on Napster's Web site. The release was arranged by the band, but its record label, BMG Entertainment-owned RCA Records, is not expected oppose it. Other bands that have been outspoken supporters of Napster, including Offspring, have attempted similar promotions but were stopped by their record labels.

Dave Matthews Band '98

^{By Mike Rafone}

Following two enormously successful albums, Under the Table and Crash, the Dave Matthews Band has been touring arenas in support of their latest, Before These Crowded Streets. Compounding the interest of their second-generation, post-Garcia audience, Matthews is advancing the new alternative acoustic-pop. It's fitting that they've also inherited a portion of the Dead's Meyer sound system through the services of Ultrasound, a vanguard of innovative design and quality concert sound.

September 8th, 1998

ATLANTA (CNN) -- For the Dave Matthews Band (DMB), the goal was not to become one of the most popular music groups in the world. Instead, it was to make enjoyable music that would respectfully cater to the wants of fans. Now, seven years after the band formed in Charlottesville, Virginia, DMB is enjoying the best of both worlds: worldwide acclaim and sellout venues coupled with a newly released album ("Before These Crowded Streets") that was welcomed by the band's growing fan base.

"There's no plan, it's completely luck," says founding member Dave Matthews, explaining the band's talent of melding so many musical styles. DMB blends jazzy horns, acoustic guitar, unconventional percussion, and Matthews' sweeping voice to create a sound that is at once fresh and familiar. 'We didn't know what we wanted'

"There was no thought when we got together, 'Do we want to be rock, do we want to be heavy metal?'" says Matthews. "We didn't know what we wanted. We knew what we were going to do is, I was going to play guitar and sing, and Carter (Beauford) would play drums." Add Boyd Tinsley on violin, Leroi Moore on sax and wind instruments, and Stefan Lessard on bass, and DMB is revealed as a band that has learned to work well together. "We just enjoy ourselves and I think the tightness comes from just knowing each other," says Matthews. "No two takes in the studio ever sound the same either, when we're in there, so it's sort of the same thing. No two nights repeat themselves too much."

Success and simple things

By ANDREW C. REVKIN

April 14th, 1998

Allstar Magazine

Dave Matthews is a humble man. Even though the band's forthcoming album, Before These Crowded Streets, expands upon their trademark sound with interesting new twists, Matthews feels he's been "growing more with an equal lack of direction." And, while one of the songs on the album -- "The Dreaming Tree" -- is a track he is especially proud of, he somehow thinks it'll get slammed.

"I guess we're sort of growing in the same direction we have been going," says Matthews about the group's evolution from their debut album, 1994's Under the Table and Dreaming, to what will be release number six. "I don't know if it's the same way or maybe we're growing more with an equal lack of direction than we had. I'm just trying not to repeat myself -- trying to find rhythms that don't resemble the things I've written. And you know, I don't very often succeed."

On Before These Crowded Streets, Matthews and Co. -- Carter Beauford (drums, percussion), Stefan Lessard (bass), Leroi Moore (saxophone, flute), and Boyd Tinsley (violin) -- certainly succeed.

April 13th, 1998

Allstar Music

Ask Dave Matthews the meaning behind "Don't Drink the Water," the first single from the band's new album, Before These Crowded Streets, and out comes a long, passionate speech which reveals much about the singer's personal beliefs on a part of American history.

"There's some part of me that makes me wish that our guilt was less directed at the rules of our religion than the actual things that we've done," explains the South African- born/ Virginia- based Matthews about the song, which condemns the white man's treatment of Native Americans. Interestingly, the song is written from the perspective of a typical white man, who comes to a new land where he hopes his dreams can come true, only to find that there are people living there already that "don't fit into his idea of paradise, so he asks them to leave."

July 7th, 1997
By Bernice Yeung

With its funk-rock roots, use of jazz instrumentals and Southern flavor, the Dave Matthews Band swings from genre to genre, causing confusion among radio station programmers who have difficulty categorizing the band.

The Virginians have long been considered a college-radio band, a designation that accurately characterized their following early on when they played mostly frat parties. But its hard to imagine such stand-out musicians performing amid discarded beer cans; they certainly deserve a real stage.

The marquee may have announced the Dave Matthews Band in concert at the Shoreline, but the group's July 6 performance was truly violinist Boyd Tinsley's showcase. Stomping his feet, mouth wide open and face peering heavenward, the classically trained violinist commanded the stage with his contagiously exuberant and maniacally brilliant playing.

April 26, 1996

The Boston Globe - By Steve Morse

When Dave Matthews was 9 years old, he took lessons from a guitar teacher who made a lasting impression. "I was a horrible student," says Matthews. "But he told me, 'Keep your foot tapping whatever you do.' That has always stuck in my mind. If you miss a note or you miss a chord, as long as you keep the rhythm going, it really doesn't matter. Maybe I already knew it, but he verbalized the necessity to stay in the groove."

Matthews, now 29, has stayed in the groove ever since with his unique funk-rock-jazz-fusion - and it's paid dividends. His Dave Matthews Band sold 3 million copies of its last album, "Under the Table and Dreaming." And now he's back with an even better disc, "Crash," which comes out Tuesday and vindicates last year's surprise accent to arena-headlining status.

Simply put, Matthews playes the hardest-driving acoustic guitar this side of Pete Townshend. "I think it really came out of playing acoustic and wanting to be louder, but not wanting to be electric," Matthews says froma a Manhattan hotel. "I think it's a love of drum and a love of percussion that led me there. I really almost try to think of the guitar and each string on the guitar as a percussion instrument."

March 1st, 1994

by Robert Beverly, Hampden-Sydney in Music Monitor, issue #58, march 94

Dave Matthews is a busy man. Three years ago, he was a self-described "bedroom guitarist" in Charlottesville who had performed in public maybe five times. Now, he's filling clubs with a hot band and a new RCA record deal. Their first CD, Remember Two Things, sells as fast as great big Bama Records can press it.

The Dave Matthews Band is not on a roll because they're the musical flavor of the month. They're on a roll because they're good.  A couple of weeks ago, Dave and I tried to asses the past, present and the future in 25 minutes or less.  We started with the future- recording their major label debut.

"We'll have two months, which is just- heaven. The only studio work we've done has been like, 'Okay, we're going to record an album- you have four days.' And it's really hard to get anything going."