#41: Tribute to LeRoi Moore of Dave Matthews Band

In light of yesterday’s passing of Dave Matthews Band saxophonist LeRoi Moore, I wanted to take a moment to pay tribute to a great musician who helped sculpt the sound of one of the most popular bands of the past couple decades, and one of my favorite bands growing up.

My brother Adam introduced me to Dave Matthews Band (everyone called it “Dave”, for short), back when Under The Table and Dreaming came out in the early ’90s.  I was hooked from the first time I heard “Ants Marching,” and went down to my local Peaches record store to buy the single.  The clerk told me they didn’t carry the single, but suggested that I buy the whole album.  I wouldn’t be disappointed, he said.

And I wasn’t.  From the moment you heard Moore’s saxophone in sync with Boyd Tinsley’s violin, each layered atop Carter Beauford’s mind-blowing percussion (to call it “drumming” just wouldn’t do it justice), you knew this was something different.

Some of the best memories of my youth are sitting in the passenger seat of my buddy Scott’s car sophomore year of high school, him speeding to get back from our off-campus lunch break while the two of us blasted the Crash album.  I’d play air drums on the dashboard, we both sang at the top of our lungs, and invariably our company in the backseat would look on appalled.

Here’s “#41”, my favorite song by one of my favorite bands.  Here’s to you, LeRoi.