Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King
It’s a fitting start to a heartfelt tribute: the Dave Matthews Band‘s new album opens with a minute of noodling saxophone from horn player LeRoi Moore, who died last August after an ATV accident.
Moore’s death shocked his band mates into a sudden sense of urgency: The group had spent nearly 18 months tinkering with ideas for a follow-up to its 2005 album, “Stand Up,” when Moore died. The surviving musicians quickly finished “Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King” (RCA), and it’s probably no coincidence that it’s their strongest album in years.
Matthews finds a skillful balance in his lyrics between off-handed whimsy and deeper reflections, and the others back him with a tighter version of the instrumental interplay that has made them one of the most popular American bands of the past 15 years.
As expected on an album dedicated to Moore, there’s plenty here about mortality and the fragility of life. Matthews sings of finding peace and acceptance on “Lying in the Hands of God,” and he muses over things that are peculiar-funny (as opposed to ha-ha) on the lead single, “Funny the Way It Is.”
He goofs around elsewhere, issuing a steady stream of oddball come-ons on “Shake Me Like a Monkey” and growling out lyrics through a humid swamp vibe on “Alligator Pie (Cockadile).”
That song, full of banjo, guitar and Carter Beauford’s busy drumming, is a full-bore display of the group’s jammy instrumental prowess. The musicians show off their more tuneful side on “Why I Am” as guitar and bass lock into a catchy riff while Boyd Tinsley’s violin swirls dizzily in the background.
Each is a reminder, along with most of the rest of “Big Whiskey,” of how impressive the Dave Matthews Band is when everyone finds a common focus.
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