Positively Scarred

(Note: I’ve already written about a song from my favorite band, but here’s another for you. Because that’s how much I love them.)

At work one night in August back in 2008, I received a text message from my dad: “LeRoi Moore died.”

You’ve gotta be kidding me! No! This could NOT be happening! We were supposed to see them perform in less than a week. How!? Why!? My mind was reeling and I was upset. True, I had seen special guests perform with them before; it wouldn’t be any different, right? It would be just like that without LeRoi, right?

Secretly, I hoped they wouldn’t cancel. I’d seen them every year since I was a sophomore in high school. I had a crisis over it until my dad told me, a few days later, that they canceled even though they had a special guest performing in LeRoi’s spot. (Jeff Coffin, who has since become a permanent member.) Obviously they were overcome with grief and I couldn’t blame them.

Fast forward to summer 2009: Big Whiskey & the GrooGrux King had just dropped. Immediately, I fell in love with the album. GrooGrux was a nickname of LeRoi Moore’s and the band paid homage to him with this album. Many people have paid tribute to him and his memory; I pay tribute whenever I listen to “Bartender” because it was one of his favorites.

I know you’re probably expecting this song to be about LeRoi Moore, but it isn’t. It was necessary for me to tell you the above for me to tell you about the song itself. The song, of course, is off the Big Whiskey album. I was seeing them in concert, of course, again, for the 6th time or so. I love seeing them because there’s so much energy. DMB concerts pretty much ruined all other concerts for me, because no one can even compare. But, I digress…

I watched my favorite band up on stage. In between songs, Dave Matthew’s stepped up to the mic. He told the audience a story about the next song he would play: He has two daughters, twins, Grace and Stella. One day, Stella asked him when she would be in a song. Of course, Dave had to oblige. I thought it was the best story and it made me love him that much more.

It’s my favorite song off this album. The blend of instruments paired with Dave’s vocals makes me swoon every time. It makes me think of New Orleans, where much of this album was recorded. I’ve never been, but this song makes me imagine what it’s like there. I’ll go someday and put truth to my imagination.

For now, though, I’ll just listen to the song and have some alligator pie.