Music Review – Dave Matthews Band – Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King

The first track, a haunting saxophone, notifies listeners that what follows will be a tribute to the late LeRoi Moore.  The twelve remaining tracks leave you feeling as if you’ve just attended a wake in New Orleans on Mardi Gras.  How does that feel?  Well, happy, reflective, sad and weird; throw in some disappointment and some raucous dancing and you have Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King.

The opinions of early reviewers have been scattered.  Some have mandated this album be added to the “Big 3.”  Others have thought it a continuation of DMB’s recording mediocrity since 1998′s Before These Crowded Streets. Big Whiskey will not have fans razor-blading the Fire Dancer stickers off the back of their Subarus.  But it probably won’t draw a huge new audience from those living outside of the Warehouse either.

Lyrically listeners get what they’ve come to expect: love and sex, a tall drink, a review of social ills and a search for God and/or meaning.  Musically, many of the tracks are a hard-driving detour from the standard Dave fare.  The album’s second cut, Shake Me Like a Monkey is a sonic party filled with horns.

Funny the Way it is, the first and probably only single on Big Whiskey, will no doubt make it into many future set lists with it’s overly simple juxtapositions.  The bridge on Funny makes the album worth the purchase.  The syncopated telling of “now the world is small,” is, perhaps a perfect microcosm of the whole album in a few measures.

Tim Reynolds adds some driving electric guitars on Why I Am (an unashamed song about LeRoi) and offers some sitar on Lying in the Hands of God.  The departure from Dave’s lonely acoustic offerings is sometimes distracting or at least different.

While the last few DMB albums have been critically panned and dismissed by fans, Carter Beauford’s percussion has been a consistent highlight.  No exception here.  Throughout the record, faithful listeners will remain grounded by Beauford’s work.

Squirm makes you feel uneasy, so it is followed by the nonsensical Alligator Pie, a song you can imagine turning into an eighteen minute jam on stage.  This will be the point in the summer tour where my wife says, “Sometimes I hate Dave Matthews.”  Don’t worry, she’ll snap out of it before the encore.

For fans waiting for the next Ants Marching; sorry, it’s not on this album.  For non-fans hoping to figure out why their DMB-fan friends take their summer vacations traveling around American in earth-conscious vehicles, shelling out a fortune on tickets and merch, you’ll still be wondering at the conclusion of Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King.

Should I buy it?  If you’re a fan, you already have.  If you’re not already a DMB fan, it is unlikely that this album will win you over.  Non-fans should save their money and go see the band at a tour stop this summer.  Then you can buy all of their albums, a Subaru and a bumper sticker that will properly identify your newfound fandom.  Many tour stops, including the Cleveland show, are slated to be opened by Old Crow Medicine Show, a super cool bluegrass/Americana band.