Happy Birthday Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King
Dave Matthews Band seventh studio album released twelve years ago today.
Yesterday we celebrated the birthday of Enema of the State and today we get to celebrate the twelfth birthday of the Dave Matthews Band album, Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King. The album was released on June 2nd of 2009.
Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King is DMBs seventh studio album and was released through RCA Records.
Three of the biggest songs off of the album, “Funny the Way It Is”, Why I Am”, and “You and Me” were all released as singles with “Funny the Way It Is” coming out two months prior to the album. The other two songs were released a few months after Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King hit the listeners ears as singles.
The importance of this album for Dave Matthew Band was that it was the bands first release since the death of saxophonist LeRoi Moore who passed away in August of 2008. He was injured when driving an ATV in Virginia and was hospitalized again due to complications. On August 19th, 2008 he was rushed to the hospital in Los Angeles and passed away due to pneumonia.
Another large aspect of the album was that guitarist Tim Reynolds marked his first recording with DMB since 1998 when he was on Before These Crowded Streets. Rashawn Ross made his first appearance on a Dave Matthews Band studio album since joining the band as a touring member in 2006.
Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King sold four million plus copies in America, one million plus in the U.K, and five hundred thousand plus in Japan and Germany combine. In both Great Britain and America the album hit number one on the Billboard Charts and was named platinum in America.
My personal favorite off of the album is Shake Me Like a Monkey, the second track. Honestly, I can play that song anywhere whether I’m in the car driving with the windows down, at the gym, or just hanging around a fire. It’s an unreal song and in my opinion the best song off of an absolutely LOADED album. You really could name any of the fourteen songs off the album as your favorite and it wouldn’t be a wrong answer.
Happy twelfth birthday to Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King!