Dave Matthews Band Debuts ‘Blackbird’ Cover On This Date In 2005

Dave Matthews Band brought a run of three shows at The Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington to a close on this date in 2005 with a performance that included an impromptu Beatles cover. The group played a gorgeous version of “Blackbird” at The Gorge 15 years ago today, one of only three times DMB covered the Lennon/McCartney classic.

Butch Taylor, the group’s keyboardist at the time, first worked the “Blackbird” melody into his “Dreamgirl” outro one night prior at The Gorge. A note from DMB’s crew (via DMB Almanac) explains what happened on August 21, 2005:

As Butch started the piano prelude to what was to become “Steady As We Go,” he touched on a lick from Paul McCartney’s “Blackbird.” At that moment, each of the band members looked over at him, smiled and nodded and suddenly they were playing the tune. Completely impromptu, it was great to witness in person.

DMB’s “Blackbird” features exquisite saxophone work from the late LeRoi Moore and beautiful piano stylings from Taylor. Matthews sang his heart out on the cover which would turn up again later that summer in Albuquerque as well as at Red Rocks. Stream audio featuring DMB’s cover of “Blackbird” from this date in 2005 shared by Jo Ann Jones:

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