Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King by Dave Matthews Band

{Originally published in the C.W. Post Pioneer, the following was my contribution to an article about the best music of 2009}

Big Whiskey And The Groogrux King by Dave Matthews Band

While I want to give credit to Green Day’s highly underrated 21^st Century Breakdown (Yeah, I know, the cool, hip kids all say “I only like old Green Day”. Well, you all knew the words to American Idiot, so f*ck you), I have to admit that the best album of the year has to be Big Whiskey. This great collection of songs, with that vintage Dave Matthews sound, begins and ends with sax solos from the late LeRoi Moore, who was a founding member of the band. His tragic death, while in mid -production of the album, not only inspired them to name the album in his honor (Groogrux being, among other things, a nickname of Moore’s), but to write some of the more somber tracks on the album. Songs like “Lying In The Hands Of God” and the final track “You & Me” are filled with a mournful tone befitting a band in grief, the incredibly upbeat “Why I Am” seems to be a lyrical thank you to Moore, and a musical memorial for such a talent. Certainly, “Shake Me Like A Monkey”, their most James Brown-esque track to date, didn’t receive the airplay of “Single Ladies” or “Poker Face”, but it’s much less insipid, and I’m sure will better stand the test of time.