Introducing The (New) Dave Matthews Band

“Have you heard of The Dave Matthews Band?”

“Umm…I don’t know…what do they play?”

I stood there, my new teacher flipping through a stack of compact discs in the corner of the room. It was my first lesson with the new instructor. After a few seconds, he found the desired album. A home-ripped disc with a Sharpie written label.

He popped the plastic lid on the room’s boom box. More appropriately put, he lifted the piece of duct tape up, allowing the lid to rise from the player. Laying the disc into position, he closed the boom box lid, securing the tape. He eyed the player as the digital track listing stalled.

After applying a second, fresh piece of tape, the track listing loaded. He advanced the track under the heavy click of a plastic skip button. Momentarily, the sound of a spinning disc filled the room, followed thereafter by a violin intro.

“It’s called Ants Marching.”

Funny name for a song, I thought.

The instructor lifted his violin and played along.

I stood, my own violin hanging at my side like a strange tool never held before. But in reality I had played the violin for 12 years up to that point. However, I’d always focused on classical music (aka my mother had enrolled me into the tutelage of all classical instructors). This marked my first foray into the world of “fiddle.” I had wanted something different. The transition from baroque to rock-and-roll jam band seemed an apt location to start.

So began my connection with The Dave Matthews Band.

I didn’t stumble upon the group through drunken frat parties and dudes wearing pastel polos and white baseball caps. Nor did I come by it in an atmospheric haze of burning pot and glazed eyes. I discovered it by the necessity of something new.

Something new.

The very motto of The (new) Dave Matthews Band.

Anyone who’s followed the band knows of its continued evolution. Flipping through piano players, the death of their saxophonist, the inclusion of a trumpeter, and the addition of a guitar guru has always shifted and influenced the band’s sound. Today is no different.

However, unlike previous evolutionary steps of the band, the latest is the most impactful. At least for me.

The departure of the violin player.

The exodus of Boyd Tinsley (realistically “banishment” would likely be a better word in the current situation) from the band left me disappointed. When I found out the reason, it disgusted me.

When a person’s idol falls from grace, is what they formerly represented gone as well?

Tainted perhaps?

I wouldn’t go as far to say Boyd was an “idol,” but he stood as the linchpin connecting me to the band. Without a linchpin, things tend to fall apart.

So now I come to the latest album release, Come Tomorrow. I didn’t know what to expect. I figured it wouldn’t have violin. Figured the band would scrub the digital tracks clean of any 1’s and 0’s containing the sound of violin.

I deeply enjoy some of the tracks. A soothing connection to one’s inner soul. As if a few of the songs siphon off the listener’s own emotional connections to love, or life or death, or the world in general.

For anyone looking for the next great radio hit, this isn’t the album for them. One song, The Idea of You, has lingered on setlists for nearly a decade. I always thought it could be a smashing success if released on a studio album.

It’s my biggest disappointment on the entire album. Maybe I envisioned too much. Thought it would receive the Crash into Me production, with all the bells and whistles. But it felt simplified.

Perhaps that is the point.

Most of the album represents simpler things.

I’m okay with that.

I don’t know how it will translate live. Which, for fans of the band, is what’s really important. It’s a live band. Studio albums are secondary.

This isn’t the frat boy album college bros everywhere partied to in the past.

And I’m okay with that.

Everybody changes.

Everything changes.

A band changes.

Much has changed since I first heard The Dave Matthews Band. No more broken CD players. No more music instructors. And no more holding onto my own violin, waiting to play along with the band.

I’ll have to wait to see if I’m okay with that.