Welcome to BeaufordBlog! In this blog, I aim to herald the brilliance of The Man himself: Carter Beauford. Some of you might already recognize that sinking feeling, “Oh no, not another gushing fanboy blog”. But, you see that’s where you’re wrong.

This is THE Ultimate Gushing Fanboy Blog.

So, to start the gushing off right, I want to discuss why I find Carter Beauford so awesome:

1) He does other stuff besides play the drums

Like getting his pilot’s license, for instance (he mentions this on the Dave Matthews Band – Live at Folsom Field Boulder Colorado
DVD). A bit of an polymath myself, I always enjoy seeing my heros do something else outside of their normal realm of heroism. I’ve also seen pictures of Carter holding a guitar, and despite never witnessing him play guitar live, hanging around Dave and Tim Reynolds all the time makes me believe he snuck a few lessons in there. I know I would .

2) Takes a very active role in the band

Similar to how Sting highlighted Stewart Copeland as the driving force behind the The Police, Dave Matthews has given plenty of song writing and arranging cred to Carter Beauford. When I listen to some of the live versions of Dave Matthews Band songs, I definitely hear the musical moments where Carter had more influence. Those moments sound a bit more “audience friendly” and slightly over the top. Typical Carter .

Also, most of the people I consider drum demi-gods don’t sing, but when it comes to backup vocals, Carter just jumps right into it and he doesn’t sound bad at all. That really describes the whole man: this big happy, funny guy who soaks up everything like a sponge.

3) The drumming really is quite brilliant

For me, Carter Beauford combines all my favorite drummers: Buddy Rich, Dennis Chambers, Steve Gadd, Stewart Copeland, etc. into one unique drumming experience. His left-hand bell work, his high-hat, snare drum, bass drum syncopation, and the flat ride, splash cymbal sounds that rise over the top of everything else all represent things that I rarely hear in pop/rock/world-beat music these days. Some say he plays too busy, but I can count on one hand the number of times I felt he really stepped on Dave’s vocals or barreled over the music. And, he always dials it back for studio recordings. But, in a live situation, I believe he plays exactly the way he needs to in order to get the audience excited and keep them engaged during the show.

In future posts, I will delve into Dave Matthews Band’s vast library of live and studio recordings and try to review each one of Carter Beauford’s performances. I want to come up with a “Best of Carter Beauford” CD that contains his best versions of every song across all the live and studio recordings I can get my hands on. Additionally, I plan to pore over every interview I can find to discover more about the man behind the (massive ) drum set. So, stay tuned.