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C-Ville
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Quotes
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On Mark getting the Dave Mathews Band its first gig: "[A Charlottesville bar called] Eastern Standard gave DMB its first weekly gig, on Tuesday nights. Mark Roebuck, formerly of the band the Deal and cowriter of "The Song that Jane Likes," managed a shift at the venue, and it was him who got the quartet hired. Unfortunately, it cost him his own job; this still rankles Mathews: 'The guy who had the idea for us to play there got the shaft. We had a small crowd, but we had a pretty intense reaction from the beginning'" (p. 53)
"Guitarist Haines Fullerton was another C'ville fixture who had a direct influence on Matthews and, subsequently, DMB. Originally from Minnesota, Fullerton lived for a while in Memphis before coming to UVA in 1977. Known simply as 'Haines' to many, Fullerton was part of the band the Deal, as was Mark Roebuck. Both musicians cowrote two different DMB tunes. The Deal, which formed when all its members graduated from UVA, had a regional hit, and they released an album, called Brave New World, on an indie label in 1987. They broke up in 1987. As a bartender at Eastern Standard, Tokyo Rose, and Trax in the early 1990s, Fullerton became known throughout C'ville as a humble, kind, yet complex person with extraordinary musical gifts. Shannon Worrell, who worked with Fullerton on her 1994 release Three Wishes, remarks: 'He facilitated lots of good things between people . . . What Haines could do is make people put their egos aside. Kristin [Asbury] and I even started playing together because of Haines." Worrell and Asbury then became the group Monsoon (with Lauren Hoffman), and eventually formed September 67. As September 67, they came out with a CD in 1996 entitled Lucky Shoe. Some people suggest the Fullerton taught Mathews a lot about playing the guitar. Others imply that it was Mathews who got Fullerton playing again around 1991 after Fullerton's long, self-imposed exile from the music scene. Either way, Fullerton, Mathews, and Worrell were spotted playing guitar together in a park one block form Miller's during this period, so it's clear that Fullerton was playing again, and playing around Mathews. [Charlottesville musician David] Wellbeloved encapsulated Fullerton's impact on the entire music community like this: "Haines had an influence on everyone's playing who ever played with him. He could musically articulate. You couldn't sit down with him and not come away a changed musician. It was almost mystical. He had a huge influence in this town on many people. Mathews developed a great deal of affection for Fullerton, and would often play for him. The admiration was mutual. [Hampton Sydney English professor and traditional delta blues musician] Victor Cabas recalls a late evening at Tokyo Rose in the fall of 1991, during which Fullerton played a live tape of DMB for him and detailed it nuance by nuance, lyric by lyric. 'He went through every song of Daves's,' says Cabas, 'and explained it to me. He really understood the poetry of it. He said, "Dave's gonna be big. He's going to go global." Haines never said things like that and he said it with such utter conviction.' . . . In their acknowledgments for their first CD, Remember Two Things, Mathews and the band thanked Fullerton; they would also give him shared songwriting credit from '#34,' a track on their second CD." (65-68)
"The Song that Jane Likes, dedicated to Mathews' sister, has theatrical allusions imbedded in its lyrics - a nod to Dave's acting days. The music was cowritten with Mark Roebuck, and, evidently, it was finished before the lyrics were. For this reason, Mathews has said that I'll Back You Up was the first song he ever competed." (p. 91) Quotes from: "Remember Two Things was produced by John Alagia and The Dave Mathews Band. All songs are credited to Mathews, except "The Song The Jane Likes," which he co-wrote with Mark Roebuck. Roebuck played in the Charlottesville band The Deal and worked as a bartender at Eastern Standard where DMB originally stated gigging." (p. 28) "The final cut on the album, '#34,' is dedicated to Miguel Valdez, a Charlottesville percussionist and close friend of the band, especially Carter, who passed away in 1993. He had sat in with the band a couple of times during the early years and had been a member of The Charlottesville All-Stars. This free-spirited jamboree is the only instrumental they've ever released officially and the eventual writing credit would be given to Dave and an old bartending friend, Haines Fullerton." (p. 40) |
