Customer Reviews

Breathe: The bluegrass tribute to the songs of Dave Matthews

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Hailed as one of the best live bands to ever tour the U.S., the Virginia-born Dave Matthews Band has gone from rags to riches with their grassroots sound. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the music world is ready to witness some truly unique praise from the world of bluegrass.
Recently released as a summer tribute album, Breathe: A Bluegrass Tribute to the songs of the Dave Matthews Band is both an accurate tribute, and possibly a new perspective. Dave Matthews and his five-piece band have amazed audiences with their mix of violin, sax, and acoustic guitar. Taking that mixture one step further to include banjos, mandolins and a fiddle (or bluegrass violin) could either bring cheers or jeers from loyal fans.
Musically, the album works hard to be a fitting tribute to the band. Completely lyric-free, the songs are explored solely with instruments, although the lyric melodies are retained in some parts. The album features a decent mixture of versions from both new and old album material. Favorites like Ants Marching, What Would you Say, Two Step, and Don't Drink the Water are featured in their own bluegrass interpretation.
Although bluegrass may not be quite as popular in college mainstream as the Dave Matthews Band is, musically you can not miss the fact that this is an excellent tribute despite its genre. Fans of DMB and their work will quickly recognize any of the songs and they are actually expanded upon in some areas with bluegrass-style solos. Although Crush and Don't Drink the Water are difficult to place at first, the opening riffs to Jimi Thing, Rhyme and Reason and Satellite are familiar ground for anyone familiar with the band.
While this may not be a staple album for every college student, those who are Dave Matthews fans and appreciate well-adapted tributes will find this album pleasing. The tribute is achieved well, without doing any sort of injustice to the original product. Sadly, those who are not fans already will most likely not enjoy this album as well, and those with an aversion to bluegrass should avoid it at all costs. Don't expect to hear this one blasted loudly from any cars on campus, but for relaxed "chill time" on your own it can be both soothing and entertaining.

The Bottom Line: Fans of DMB will enjoy the familiar feeling of a tribute within another genre, while others may find the bluegrass to be undesirable. Regardless of your stance, this is an album filled with the styling of some very professional musicians covering a band no less exceptional in their work.

If you are a Dave Matthews Band fan, this CD is really cool. This definitely isn't the right CD for a first time listener, but I know for me as a fan it really helped me to appreciate the original recordings more. The musicianship on this CD is definitely top notch. They manage to play through all the songs without the need of drums for extra background! My ownly complaint, besides length, is the lack of dynamics. As a musician and lover of music I know and can appreciate the importance of crescendos and decrescendos, and that's one reason I love DMB so much. They do a superb job of building and winding down throughout the song which adds a lot to the energy. This Breathe CD, on the other hand, is very musical and creative and together yet it seems to lack that original DMB juice. It is a pretty cool CD that's worth the 15 bucks, but don't expect it to be as great as Dave.

While I agree with the earlier review that this is an unnecessary release, I fail to see what's so wrong about that. I'm a fan of bluegrass, so that probably helps, but it only takes one listen to see that the musicianship on this CD is first-rate. The songs are kept shorter than their DMB-performed counterparts, but to honest, that takes nothing away from them, as it would be difficult to do something different with multiple verses of vocals. Add into that that the performers evidently really did their homework, drawing not only from the obvious studio versions of these songs, but from live versions as well, often in the same song (listen closely to What Would You Say). And on top of all that, the song selection sometimes makes forehead-smacking sense (Two Step, Tripping Billies, Lie In Our Graves), and sometimes is very surprising (Rhyme and Reason, Recently, Don't Drink the Water [which even more surprisingly eschews the use of a banjo, even though it's DMB version contains one]), but it always works. Overall, unless you're a die-hard DMB fan, it's not an essential CD, but if you love DMB, or love well-performed Bluegrass music, or preferably both, it's a great CD to own.

What a great CD. I've never particularly enjoyed blue grass music, but one spin of this disc changed that. I'm not saying that I want to move to Kentucky(no offence), but listening to DMB being played on moonshine bottles definitely re-established my love for the melodies, which often get over shadowed by the heartfelt lyrics. This CD is a definite buy for the above average DMB fan.

this cd is guaranteed to put a smile on your face! as a huge fan of DMB i must say these guys really pulled it off. extremely good musicians deliver an album right in the spirit of DMB. well done!

This CD is a wonderful tribute to the music of the Dave Matthews Band. Rich, flowing tones greet your ears when you place this CD in your disc player. I have even listened to it in the car. If you love DMB, and I do, you will love the energy and inspiration found in the notes of this wonderful instrumental album. It's been played many times, I may even be due for a new copy. :) Peace.

Let me begin with saying that this cd is really good music and well writen. With that out of the way, this cd is only 37 minutes long. For Dave Matthews music, this is way to short and i feel that CMH records could have made it a lot longer. The song selection is good, but the brevity really detracts from this CD.

Whether a bluegrass fan or not, this CD will captivate you by its unique twist on DMB and it's interesting arrangements, if not opening your eye's to the bluegrass genre. Excellent musicianship and attention to the subtleties of DMB's skillfully crafted tunes accentuate this album. This is especially true of tracks like Ants Marching, Tripping Billies and Lie in our Graves. Fun listening, excellent investment for the long-time DMB fan looking for something new!

This little-known CD is a must-have for DMB fans. While it can be difficult to play Dave as background music (because the words are so worthy of hearing) Breathe is a wonderful background piece. I run it at the office and have received many comments about it - all positive, even from people who would have sworn they aren't bluegrass fans. The music follows the notes written by DMB and even evokes the same emotional reactions (though softer to be sure). For those of you who are already familiar with bluegrass music, you'll recognize the presence of some mighty talented musicians here. For those of you who thought you hated bluegrass because of the whiny vocal qualities it can bear, rest assured that this one is strictly music without distracting vocals. And, finally, for those of you who are unfamiliar with bluegrass, this is a great introduction to music with down home roots cloaked in the DMB music you already love.

Just bought this CD and was very disappointed both as a DMB fan and a bluegrass lover. While the muscians on this CD are technically proficient, their strict adherence to the vocal melodies leaves the over all orchestrations rather sterile, especially if one is expecting something akin to the virtuosity of pickers like Fleck, Thile, Douglas, Sutton, Duncan, etc. This CD clearly demonstrates how integral Carter Beauford and LeRoi Moore are to the DMB sound. If you are a diehard DMB fan, then this CD will look nice in your library, but I imagine it will never suffer the wear of routine play.