Dave Matthews Biography

David John Matthews, popularly known as Dave Matthews, (born January 9, 1967 in Johannesburg, South Africa) is the lead vocalist and guitarist from Dave Matthews Band (DMB).

At the age of two, Matthews and his devoutly Quaker family immigrated to Westchester County, New York, where his physicist father went to work for IBM. Then, in the early 1970s, he moved to Cambridge, England before returning to New York, where his father died of brain cancer in 1977. Dave took piano lessons as a child before picking up the guitar at age nine. The family moved back to South Africa in 1980, where Matthews went to a few different schools.
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In 1986 Matthews relocated to Charlottesville, Virginia, where his parents had lived before he was born. Though he also logged time back in South Africa and in Amsterdam, it was in Charlottesville that he became part of the local music community. His first professional musical performance was at a modern dance performance by the Miki Liszt Dance Company, singing "Sensitive Feelings," composed by John D'earth and Dawn Thompson. In 1990 he hatched the idea to form his own band.

Matthews had originally envisioned someone else singing his songs. After writing his first few songs, including "The Song that Jane Likes" and "Recently", he began to consider starting his own band. Matthews formed The Dave Matthews Band in early 1991 with Boyd Tinsley, Leroi Moore, Carter Beauford, and Stefan Lessard while he was working as a bartender at Miller's in Charlottesville. The band's first gig was on May 11, 1991, at a private rooftop party held by Lydia Condor at the South Street Warehouse in downtown Charlottesville.

The musician is one of the principals of ATO Records, a music label which he helped found in 2000 with DMB manager Coran Capshaw. Matthews released a solo album in late 2003, Some Devil, which went platinum; its single, "Gravedigger," won a Grammy Award in 2004. Dave Matthews & Friends is a jam band consisting of the musicians involved in this project.

Since 2001, Matthews has been one of the directors of Farm Aid. He maintains a vineyard on his Charlottesville property and makes wine from his own grapes.

Dave Matthews has also acted in two feature films. Matthews played Will Coleman in the 2003 adaptation of the novel Where the Red Fern Grows. He also portrayed the character Otis in the 2005 film Because of Winn-Dixie, also based on a novel of the same name.

Matthews and his wife, Ashley Harper, have twin daughters born in 2001, Stella Busina and Grace Anne. The family splits their time between Seattle, Washington and Charlottesville.

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DAVE MATTHEWS BIOGRAPHY