Butch Taylor quits Dave Matthews Band

Butch Taylor left Dave Matthews Band today, according to the Official DMB Website. The brief announcement reads:

"Keyboardist Butch Taylor has decided to leave Dave Matthews Band. We are saddened by this sudden news but he has our full support. He’s given so much to us and our audience through the years and he will be missed."

Butch Taylor first played keyboards with DMB on June 5, 1998 and became full-time touring keyboardist in 2001. He also performed on the albums Before These Crowded Streets and Stand Up.

Butch was reportedly in the studio this spring as DMB recorded its next studio album. It remains to be seen whether any of his work there will make it onto the album.

DMB's next album and summer tour will also feature trumpet player Rashawn Ross and guitarist Tim Reynolds. Rashawn has played with the band since 2005. Tim was a frequent DMB guest in the 1990s but stopped after the 1998 tour, which is when Butch started playing with the band.

UPDATE (5/28): The latest AntsMarching.org Podcast reports that Butch decided to leave the band on his own and did so for "personal reasons."

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Dave and Tim play concert at Microsoft conference

Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds played a private concert for attendees of the Microsoft advance08 conference in Seattle on May 20.

The complete setlist is unknown, but Dave and Tim played "Where Are You Going," "Lie in Our Graves," "Crash Into Me," "Ants Marching" and "All Along the Watchtower," according to DMBAlmanac.com. Tim also played an unknown solo.

Advance08 is Microsoft's annual advertising leadership forum.

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Dave and Boyd: New songs not likely this tour

Dave Matthews Band probably won't play any new material on this year's summer tour, according to Dave Matthews and Boyd Tinsley in separate interviews with Rolling Stone and Billboard.com, respectively.

DMB has been in the studio with producer Rob Cavallo this spring, working on the follow-up to 2005's Stand Up. Boyd told Billboard that the album's songs have been composed, but they don't have lyrics, so he isn't sure if the band will play them live yet.

"It might be a situation where we might take a couple of those in rehearsals and in sound checks and sort of work out arrangements to play this summer," he said. "We haven't really discussed that too much."

Rolling Stone specifically asked Dave if the band would play any new songs, and he replied:

"In the past we have, but I want to let this album evolve on its own. There's music on the album, and there's music that we perform live. There's crossover, but they're not necessarily the same. And I think that makes it interesting for fans."

DMB has already played several songs in concert that will likely appear on the next studio album, including "The Idea of You," "Cornbread," "#27" and "Shotgun." It remains to be seen whether DMB won't play those songs this summer, or if Dave and Boyd were just referring to songs that fans haven't heard yet.

The tour starts in just 10 days, May 30 in Burgettstown, Pa.

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Looking back at Dave Matthews Band's NYT debut

It's been 14 years since Dave Matthews Band received its first coverage in The New York Times -- a moment highlighted in this week's Mental Floss blog.

The weekly feature "The First Time News Was Fit to Print" reprints the Times' Sept. 2, 1994 HORDE Tour review -- the first time DMB ever graced the Old Gray Lady's pages:

"The day started on the main stage with the Dave Matthews Band, the most promising new group on the bill. It performed lively, introspective rock songs that had just the right amount of open spaces for improvisations and solos. Outside of Mr. Matthews’s gently emotional vocals, the high point was the violin playing of Boyd Tinsley, which moved nimbly from mock-classical background accompaniment to upbeat bluegrass."

The article appeared just as DMB's first single, "What Would You Say," was gaining momentum on the radio and MTV. Under the Table and Dreaming was released 25 days later, launching the band into stardom.

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Dave Matthews Band to play NYC cancer benefit

Dave Matthews Band will play a lung cancer benefit concert at Madison Square Garden in New York on Sept. 10.

The show, announced today, will benefit Stand Up for a Cure, a "nonprofit organization dedicated to eradicating lung cancer." The organization is hosting several events in New York this summer, including a Jerry Seinfeld show next month and a Brian Wilson concert in July.

Tickets for the DMB show are only available through the Warehouse or by invitation. The cheapest seats are $79.50, and the most expensive are $254.50 -- but those seats are reserved for Stand Up for a Cure benefactors. The Warehouse ticket request period opens tomorrow at noon and closes next Friday at noon.

Madison Square Garden has hosted some of the great Dave Matthews concerts ever, including the Dec. 21, 2002 show where DMB performed "Sex Machine" with James Brown and the Dec. 17, 2003 Dave Matthews and Friends concert that featured the return of "Sweet Up and Down."

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Tim Reynolds to tour with Dave Matthews Band

Tim Reynolds will join Dave Matthews Band on its 2008 summer tour, the band announced today.

Tim and his electric guitar were DMB concert fixtures throughout the 1990s, but except for one show in 2004, he hasn't played with DMB since 1998. He has also been in the studio, working with the band on its next album.

Also, Butch Taylor and Rashawn Ross will again be touring with DMB, giving the band an eight-man touring ensemble -- its largest ever.

The news about Tim is drawing even more interest to the upcoming tour, which has already promised the debuts of new songs. For a taste of what to expect, here's Tim playing "Recently" with DMB in Albany, N.Y. in 1998:



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