Article Archives

November 7th, 2006

The track list for the new two-disc Dave Matthews Band “Greatest Hits” CD, entitled The Best of What’s Around – Vol.1 is out, and fans everywhere can begin pre-ordering the CD for its November 7 release.

As the hook.net reported in August, the DMB had asked fans for input on track selections via an online poll on their website. Remarkably, the collection “compiled by fans” features two studio tracks from each album on disc one, and no live tracks recorded before 2000 on disc two.

According to Waldo Jaquith, who runs the DMB fan-favorite website, nancies.org, there have been some fan complaints about both discs.

October 26th, 2006

in issue 0543 of the HooK. - By VIJITH ASSAR

It seems that finishing up Live From... The Hook would be a big enough task for producer Andy Herz if the production schedule were taken at face value-- after all, he's been working on it for six months, and projects of this magnitude aren't usually put to bed without a fight.

Unfortunately for him, other people have been working on it-- in one form or another, most of the time without realizing it-- for over 20 years.

The crew he assembled to put together the documentary on '80s Charlottesville rock bands will likely subsist entirely on Vivarin and Red Bull between 2am on October 21-- when the doors closed on the Starr Hill reunion show for Virginia rock forefathers Captain Tunes and his Fabulous Noteguns-- and 8pm on October 28, when the film premieres at the Paramount Theater as part of the Virginia Film Festival.

"It's definitely a work in progress," says Herz. "There will still be some polishing and probably some final interviews to do after the 28th."

Director Joe Grafmuller has a pretty focused to-do list: "The biggest thing I'd like to have is Dave Matthews himself in the film," he says. "We have Boyd Tinsley so far, but we're still working on the details of trying to get Dave or Carter or LeRoi or Stefan. Since day one, we've been actively trying to get more of them involved."

September 29th, 2006

Dave Matthews and friends aim to keep farmers on their land

By CHUCK DARROW

Back in the 1960s and early '70s, Manhattan-attorney-turned-rural-farmer Oliver Wendell Douglas (played by the late Eddie Albert on the CBS-TV sitcom, Green Acres), often would launch into an impassioned speech about the importance of the American farmer to the nation's social and economic health and well-being.

Those monologues -- always delivered with the strains of patriotic fife music in the background -- were offered strictly for laughs. Decades later, rock superstar Dave Matthews is echoing the character's sentiments, but comedy has nothing to do with it.

"Our view of what a farmer is, the one we imagine in our head, by the silos, near the barn, tending to his pigs, tending to his cattle, or tending to the fields, is really being erased," insisted the 39-year-old South African-born, Virginia-based "jam band" avatar. He was on the phone in advance of Saturday's Farm Aid concert at Camden's Tweeter Center.

September 27th, 2006

By Dan DeLuca - Inquirer Music Critic

Dave Matthews, youngest of the Farm Aid principals, really plows into this cause close to his heart.

Among the Farm Aid four, Dave Matthews is the baby of the bunch.

The jam-band star and Virginia gentleman farmer - a headliner at the annual benefit concert, to be held Saturday at Camden's Tweeter Center, along with Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp - was a teenager in his native South Africa when the first Farm Aid took place in 1985.

Nelson organized that show after Bob Dylan made remarks in support of American farmers at Live Aid in Philadelphia that year. Nelson, 73, Young, 60, and Mellencamp, 56, have performed at every Farm Aid since.

Matthews, now 39, played his first Farm Aid in 1995, back when his enormously popular Dave Matthews Band was not so enormous. "Dave was just starting out," recalled Mellencamp, who invited him to play along with another band that was breaking that year - Hootie and the Blowfish. "He hadn't become Dave Matthews yet. But he came and played that year in Kentucky, and he got really into it."

September 22nd, 2006

By Matt Deegan

His charitable fund allows 42 underprivileged Charlottesville musicians to take private lessons and provides one-on-one tutoring for disadvantaged city students. He helped the University of Virginia host a professional woman’s tennis tournament. UVa even named a tennis center for him after he donated $1 million to help build it. If an “All-Charlottesville” team were to be drafted, who would get picked first – Boyd Tinsley, hometown author John Grisham or king of all things music, Dave Matthews?

The story of Matthews, a community-college dropout who bartended and reluctantly tried out his material at a local watering hole, Miller’s, is branded in local lore. His return to Charlottesville always prompts its retelling.

Matthews launched his music career here. However, Tinsley, the violinist in the Dave Matthews Band, laid his roots in Charlottesville and was first exposed to classical music in its school system.

His wife and two children still live in the city and he frequently makes local appearances to support classical music and tennis, his other passion. His charitable fund recently donated $75,000 to the city schools to finance private lessons, academic tutoring and equipment for tennis.

September 22, 2006

Imagine showing up for the Dave Matthews concert tonight, ticket in hand, only to be informed at the door that your ticket is worthless. Such may be the fate of someone who bought their ticket from a reseller for higher than the original face value, due to a policy of canceling resold tickets.

John Paul Jones Arena has an anti-scalping system for online tickets where tickets are canceled if they are resold for a price higher than face-value. While the arena has every right to set the terms for the sale of its tickets, reselling tickets is not illegal and tickets should not be cancelled regardless of how they were obtained.

Larry Wilson, general manager of John Paul Jones Arena, was not available for comment for this editorial, but he told The Cavalier Daily that the canceling of resold tickets is often undertaken at the request of the artists. But just because artists are requesting the action rather than other parties doesn't give them any more legitimacy. Many recording artists were pushing the crackdown on music downloading that led to lawsuits against students and universities, proving that artists aren't always looking out for students' best interests.

September 22nd, 2006

By Matt Deegan

If you bought a Dave Matthews Band ticket from a secondary vendor such as eBay or Craigslist for more than its face value, you may be turned away at the door of the John Paul Jones Arena tonight or Saturday night.

Musictoday, the official ticket provider for the arena, has a broker prevention department that monitors tickets on secondary Web sites, said Larry Wilson, the arena’s general manager.

Broker protection officials search the sites for tickets that are being sold above face value and then invalidate some of the tickets. Fans who purchase them online do not know they have been invalidated. They would find out when they hand their ticket to an arena ticket handler, who would scan it to reveal that it is invalid. The fan would then not be allowed in the arena.

“Unfortunately, that’s true,” said Del Wood, chief operating officer of Musictoday. “There’s no way to notify a third party. We want to take care of the primary fan.”

September 22nd, 2006

Philip Stewart

It was a hometown band for a hometown crowd as the John Paul Jones Arena celebrated it's official grand opening celebration.

Charlottesville's Dave Matthews Band opened up the new arena. Fans were more than excited.

Travis Williams drove all the way from Lexington, Kentucky to see the band play.

"They're my favorite band," said Williams. "This will be my 27th show and tomorrow is my 28th show."

September 21st, 2006

BY MELISSA RUGGIERI - TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

It's taken five years, but the Dave Matthews Band is finally coming home again.

Tomorrow and Saturday, the Charlottesville-based mega-band will officially christen the John Paul Jones Arena at the University of Virginia for what venue officials are deeming its "grand opening."

Yes, the building has been open since Aug. 1, when Cirque du Soleil brought its traveling spectacle, "Delirium," and has since hosted shows from James Taylor, Kenny Chesney and Brad Paisley, who shot his new video for "She's Everything" at JPJ during last Friday's concert.

But this weekend is the official hoo-ha.