The announcement of the new Dave Matthews Band album came today, along with the release of 2023 tour dates. The tour begins May 9 with a three-show run in Mexico before the U.S. leg kicks off May 19 with a concert at The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands, Texas.

The new DMB album contains 12 songs, including seven the band has previously played in concert. Most of the songs were produced by Rob Evans, who has worked as a mixer and engineer for DMB since 2003. John Alagia, a longtime collaborator with the band, serves as executive producer.

Walk Around the Moon is the first new DMB album since 2018’s Come Tomorrow, which was the band’s seventh consecutive album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. It will be available in the following formats:

• digital download
• CD
• black vinyl
• limited edition lavender vinyl
• limited edition 180-gram black vinyl with exclusive photo book
• limited edition white vinyl (available first for Warehouse members)

Walk Around the Moon is now available for pre-order.

Walk Around the Moon track listing

1. Walk Around the Moon
2. Madman’s Eyes
3. Looking for a Vein
4. The Ocean and the Butterfly
5. It Could Happen
6. Something to Tell My Baby
7. After Everything
8. All You Ever Wanted Was Tomorrow
9. The Only Thing
10. Break Free
11. Monsters
12. Singing From the Windows

“Break Free” is the oldest known song on the new DMB album, having made its live debut in 2006. The band previously worked on the song in the studio with producer Mark Baston during the abandoned sessions for the follow-up to 2005’s Stand Up.

When asked on Twitter about his involvement in producing “Break Free,” Batson replied: “I prefer to wait for the band to make their presentations!!! They work so hard and deserve to control all aspects of their rollout. I’m just another excited fan!!!”

“Singing from the Windows” and “The Ocean and the Butterfly” were first performed in 2020. DMB debuted “Walk Around the Moon,” “Madman’s Eyes” and “The Only Thing” during its 2021 tour, followed by “Something to Tell My Baby” in 2022.

The other songs are all new to fans.

Walk Around the Moon album cover

Here’s the cover art for the new Dave Matthews Band album:

Check out all of DMB’s album covers.

New DMB song Madman’s Eyes

Dave Matthews Band debuted “Madman’s Eyes” during its Fall 2021 tour and has played the new song 46 times since then. It was the band’s most-played song in concert for 2022.

DMB teased the release of “Madman’s Eyes” last week with this video, which features the song’s instrumental intro:

Listen to the Walk Around the Moon studio version of “Madman’s Eyes” here:

Dave Matthews Band 2023 tour dates

DMB will support its new album on the 2023 tour, which includes 44 stops, beginning May 9 in Mexico City and ending with the traditional Labor Day Weekend three-night stand at the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington.

Check out the complete list of Dave Matthews Band 2023 tour dates.

An Apple Music preview page lists the new DMB song and its release date, and it includes a 90-second clip. To listen, open this link in a private or incognito window on a computer: https://music.apple.com/au/album/madmans-eyes-single/1666995196

Dave Matthews Band debuted “Madman’s Eyes” during its Fall 2021 tour and has played the new song 46 times since then. It was the band’s most-played song in concert for 2022.

DMB teased the release of “Madman’s Eyes” last week with this video, which features the song’s instrumental intro:

Watch the live debut of “Madman’s Eyes” here:

Members will receive Warehouse Vol. 12 and a full live album of DMB’s April 25, 2009 concert in Nashville as digital downloads in the month after they join the fan club or renew their membership.

The Warehouse Vol. 12 track listing, consisting of exclusively 2022 performances, is as follows:

1. Samurai Cop (Aug. 20, West Palm Beach, Fla.)
2. Can’t Stop (Sept. 3, The Gorge)
3. Do You Remember (June 11, Bristow, Va.)
4. #41 (July 12, Gilford, N.H.)
5. So Right (July 12, Gilford, N.H.)
6. Louisiana Bayou (June 21, Clarkston, Mich.)
7. So Damn Lucky (July 13, Gilford, N.H.)
8. Squirm (Sept. 3, The Gorge)
9. Break For It (July 13, Gilford, N.H.)
10. Break Free (June 29, Holmdel, N.J.)

The April 25, 2009 concert at Vanderbilt Stadium features a “Bartender” opener, a mid-set “Ants Marching,” teases of “The Last Stop” and “Blue Water,” plus classics such as “Seek Up” and “Two Step.” It also includes five songs from Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King, which DMB released later that spring.

DMB has rescheduled this year’s tour dates for 2021, and all tickets will be honored. Fans may also request refunds at the point of purchase.

“We are disappointed to announce, that in light of the global COVID-19 pandemic, we will be moving all of our 2020 summer dates to the summer of 2021,” the band said in a statement. “We make this decision with the health, safety, and well-being of our fans, touring crew, and venue staff as our priority.”

The Dave Matthews Band 2021 tour will now kick off with a two-night stand in Uncasville on June 8-9 and end with two nights in Durant, Oklahoma on Oct. 8-9.

Fans who purchased tickets through the Warehouse have until June 3 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern to request a refund or credit. The Warehouse will begin processing refund requests May 12. Credits may be used toward Warehouse tickets to future DMB events through the end of 2022.

Additionally, DMB announced a weekly concert video series to benefit charity and help fans through the summer with no live music. The Dave Matthews Band Drive-In will air a concert from the band’s archives every Wednesday at 8 p.m. Eastern. The series kicks off this week with the June 29, 2019 show from Noblesville, Indiana.

The only date still on the calendar for this year is Oct. 4 at the BottleRock Napa Valley Festival, which was rescheduled from May 24.

The 39-date Dave Matthews Band 2020 tour was originally scheduled to begin with a two-night stand June 16-17 in Uncasville, Connecticut. Jeff Coffin said on a live stream in April that the start of the tour was going to be pushed back until at least late July, but DMB never made an official announcement about that.

Previously, DMB was scheduled to play three dates in Australia in April but canceled those dates in March. The band did play two concerts this year, in Las Vegas on Feb. 28 and at the Innings Festival in Tempe, Arizona on Feb. 29. Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds also held their annual three-night stand on Mexico’s Riviera Maya in February.

Since shelter-in-place and stay-at-home guidelines went into effect across the country, Dave Matthews has performed during several live streams, including fundraisers sponsored by Verizon and Salesforce, events celebrating Farm Aid and Earth Day, and appearances on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” Jeff and Tim have also put on their own streaming concerts.

The coronavirus pandemic has led to nearly all major public events, including concerts, festivals, and sporting events, being shut down worldwide. The virus has killed more than 68,000 people in the United States and 248,000 globally.

Jeff Coffin, appearing on a live video chat called “Keeping the Beat” yesterday, said: “The Dave Matthews tour‘s been pushed back til at least the end of July, early August. And that was a few weeks ago that it was pushed back that far.”

The Dave Matthews Band summer tour won’t start until at least late July or early August pic.twitter.com/9tFrBNUWDV #DMB

— DMBnews.net (@DMBnewsnet) April 22, 2020

Concerts, festivals, sporting events and other gatherings around the world have been postponed or canceled since March because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 180,000 people.

DMB has not made any announcement about its summer tour. Last week, the official Warehouse fan club charged those fans who opted to pay for tickets over time for their final installments.

The Dave Matthews Band 2020 tour was scheduled to start June 16 in Uncasville, Connecticut.

The DMB tour dates do not include several venues that have become staples over the years, including the Alpine Valley Music Theatre in Wisconsin and the Xfinity Theatre (formerly the Meadows) in Connecticut. Instead, the tour will make some new summer stops, including two nights each at the Mohegan Sun Resort and Casino in Connecticut and the 3,000-seat Choctaw Grand Theatre in Oklahoma.

DMB will also hold its regular three-night stand at the Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington State over Labor Day Weekend, featuring opening acts Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, Mavis Staples, Allen Stone and Dumpstaphunk.

There will be additional two-night stands in Noblesville, Ind., Chicago, Saratoga Springs, N.Y., Gilford, N.H., West Palm Beach, Fla. and Irvine, Calif.

Warehouse members may request Dave Matthews Band 2020 tour tickets until Feb. 3 at 3 p.m. Eastern. Citi cardholders can access a presale starting Feb. 18 at 10 a.m. local time. And tickets go on sale to the general public Feb. 21 at 10 a.m. local time.

Through its new partnership with the Nature Conservancy, DMB is giving everyone who buys a ticket the option to donate $2 to plant a tree. The band has committed to planting 1 million trees in conjunction with Dave Matthews’ Dreaming Tree Wines and the software company DocuSign — part of the Nature Conservancy’s bigger goal to plant 1 billion trees worldwide by 2025.

Photo (cc) by Al Case

Buddy Strong, who has performed with Usher, Britney Spears and others, is the new Dave Matthews Band keyboardist. He will join Dave Matthews, Carter Beauford, Stefan Lessard, Tim Reynolds, Jeff Coffin and Rashawn Ross in the lineup for the 2018 DMB tour.

Strong is the first Dave Matthews Band keyboardist since Butch Taylor left the band in 2008. It’s not known if Strong performs on the new DMB album, Come Tomorrow, which has a June 8 release date.

Strong announced the news on Instagram today, writing: “I’m so proud to announce that I’m working with Dave Matthews Band for the Summer tour. It’s truly a blessing that I’m grateful for.”

Who is Buddy Strong?

Strong, a Phoenix native, grew up playing gospel music, and he first began touring as part of Usher’s band in 2000, according to an article on Nord Keyboards’ website. (Rashawn has also performed with Usher in the past.)

Strong joined Ariana Grande’s touring band in 2016 and was present at her May 22, 2017 concert in Manchester, England, where a terror attack killed 22 people. He also performed with Grande, Coldplay, Justin Bieber and others at the One Love Manchester benefit concert the following month.

Strong has both personal and business Twitter accounts.

History of Dave Matthews Band keyboardists

Buddy Strong will be the third Dave Matthews Band keyboardist in history. Butch Taylor served longest in that position; he first began playing with the band in 1998 and performed at every DMB show from May 18, 2001 to April 1, 2008, according to DMBAlmanac.com. Butch returned to the band for a guest appearance at the Concert for Charlottesville in 2017. He also played on two DMB studio albums, 1998’s Before These Crowded Streets and 2005’s Stand Up, and was present for abandoned 2006 studio sessions — some of which may be included on Come Tomorrow.

The original Dave Matthews Band keyboardist was Peter Greisar, who joined the band shortly after its inception in 1991 and left after its March 23, 1993 concert. Greisar co-wrote the DMB songs “People People,” which the band retired after his departure, and “So Much to Say,” which won the 1997 Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group.

DMB and Butch took the stage at the charity event the band organized in its hometown, and he stayed on for the entire set. Prior to tonight, Butch’s last performance with DMB was on April 1, 2008; his still-unexplained departure from the band came the next month, a day before the summer tour kicked off.

Butch played keyboards on DMB’s 1998 album Before These Crowded Streets and began performing live with DMB that year. He joined the band on the road full-time starting in 2001, and he also appeared on the 2005 album Stand Up.

DMB organized A Concert for Charlottesville to help the city heal after this summer’s racially charged protests and violence. It is the band’s only performance in what was supposed to be its first off year. Tickets were free and made available primarily to area residents and the University of Virginia community.

Dave Matthews kicked off the show with a solo version of “Mercy,” and Coldplay’s Chris Martin and Jonny Buckland showed up to perform a surprise acoustic set. Other performers at A Concert for Charlottesville included Cage the Elephant, The Roots, Brittany Howard, Pharrell Williams, Chris Stapleton, Ariana Grande and Justin Timberlake.

Photo (cc) by Quinn Dombrowski

Inside of the Outside has already exceeded its $20,000 goal on Kickstarter, and all additional money raised will go to Cuba’s National School of the Arts in Havana. Jeff and Caleb Chapman’s Crescent Super Band — a nationally renowned high school band based in Utah — performed at the school during a recent cultural exchange, and they even recorded two of the album’s songs with students there. There’s a variety of interesting products and experiences available through the Kickstarter, including a private jam session with Jeff and a video of him eating celery, his most hated food.

Dave Matthews Band’s Rashawn Ross makes a guest appearance on the album, as do DMB’s friends Victor Wooten and Branford Marsalis. The campaign ends in six days, so head on over to the Kickstarter page and then read our interview with Jeff below:

How did you get involved with the National School of the Arts in Cuba?

It’s a really well-known school. If you’re on track to be a musician or a dancer or an artist, that’s your track for life, basically, in Cuba. This school houses 600 students, and they live there, and they have 300 instructors. They came in and performed for us, maybe 10 or 12 of them. It was stunning. They were so poised and so confident, and they sounded incredible.

One of the things we decided while we were there was that, when we finished this big band project, that all the proceeds would go to the school. One of the things that we noticed while we were there is that it was bare bones. There was nothing on the walls. The instruments they had were archaic. Stuff was falling apart.

What was it like being in Cuba at this time when our countries are coming closer together?

It was remarkable. The people were absolutely incredible — some of the warmest, most generous, beautiful people I’ve ever met. Havana, to me, was like a combination of New Orleans and Rio. It was an incredible, incredible city, and I wish I’d had another week there.

We went to this percussion festival. It was overwhelming what this music was like. To talk to the musicians and the performers, it was a singular experience in my life.

Why did you want to do a big band record, and what do you get out of this type of music that’s different from your other projects?

A number of years ago, I had two of my original tunes arranged for big band, because I was doing clinics and I’d like to be able to go in and work with a big band, which pretty much every school has. Subsequently, I’ve had 13 or 14 of my tunes arranged for big band. I decided, what better time to record it than now — with the whole education slant, with the Crescent Super Band.

For me, as an instrumentalist, we all play big band music. It’s what we grew up on. It exists in school programs and needs to be supported. There’s a lot of programs being cut, and that’s one of the things I’m railing against. If you lose the arts, you’re screwed.

There are some pretty cool experiences available through this Kickstarter, but I’m sure you’re not looking forward to eating a stalk of celery.

That was more of a joke, but I was like, if somebody is willing to put up 500 bucks for me to eat celery, I’ll do it. And then somebody did it, and I was like, oh no! We met with some people while we were out in Utah, some really great people who bought a lunch and a hang with me and Caleb. And some people came by the studio also to hang out and be part of the experience. It’s really meant a lot to me, personally.

We’ve already funded what we need to fund. I was telling Caleb, I don’t want to be greedy, but if people want to continue to donate, it’s awesome. And we’ll keep trying to find things that are incentives for people. All the money over and above what we need for the mixing, mastering production of the CD, as well as the vinyl, all that money will go to the National School of the Arts in Cuba.

What did you take away from DMB’s two-set concerts last year, and how did that inform how you approached it this year?

It hasn’t really changed that much. We’re really in a groove with it. Again, this idea of reaching out to people and trying to draw people in — that’s what we’re trying to do. It’s, let’s share this music in a different way with everybody.

You got to play with your old bandmate Bela Fleck last weekend.

What a joy to share the stage with him again. We have a very deep love for one another, and we spent a lot of time on the road together. The reason that I even know the guys in Dave Matthews Band is because of Bela and the Flecktones. There’s a very deep personal, musical, spiritual connection that goes on between everybody. I can’t say enough about having him up there and how much we all love Bela.

You’ve also debuted a few new songs this summer. How do you feel they’ve fit into the shows so far?

Great. I’m lovin’ it.

Were they developed on the road, or did they come from recent time in the studio?

A little bit of both, I would say.

How is that studio work going?

It’s going really well. I think everybody’s very excited about it, and I think it’s going to be fantastic.

Rashawn posted some photos of you and he working with an orchestra and a horn section. Can you fill us in a little more on that and what their involvement in the process is?

I’d rather not talk too much about it at this point. I think it’s nice that there’s some mystery around it.

“I asked about what we’re doing next year in the band, and the only thing I know for sure is the summer tour,” Boyd Tinsley said. “But for the rest of the year, I have no idea.”

In this final part of our interview with Boyd, he talks about the potential for a DMB B-sides album, how certain songs evolve and what it’s like being in the band in 2012.

The show [in Boston] was crazy. Do you ever see the setlist and know it’s going to be great before you even step on stage?

From the setlist, you have a good idea of what the gig’s gonna be like. The only thing is, we just gotta go up there and deliver. When I looked at the setlist, I was like, “Wow, I’m gonna be working tonight.” I didn’t look at the setlist until about a half hour before the show, so I was surprised.

Everybody had a lot of fun. Dave was so funny. I’ve never laughed so hard in my life on stage. There’s nothing like that. In this band, that can happen. You don’t even think you’re working at all. This is my job. How awesome is that? This has been a really great year for this band. Maybe the break that we had, maybe that helped. Maybe that sort of gave us a fresh new start.

How do you feel the Away From the World songs have fit in, now that you’re playing them all live?

They really blend in really well with the rest of our songs. It might have something to do with Lillywhite. It might have something to do with, particularly, the arrangements in songs. The way these songs are constructed are in the Lillywhite way.

Is revisiting older material in the studio something you’d be open to?

We have a s—load of it, man. We put it up on a board one time, and I was like, oh my God. That was at the beginning of GrooGrux King. We were sitting with Rob Cavallo, and it was like, how are we gonna approach the album? Are we gonna do some older stuff that we haven’t recorded, or are we gonna start from scratch? We decided, let’s just see if we can work up some ideas for some new stuff, and that’s obviously what we did.

I love it when we start from scratch. I love it when we create a song in the studio and record that. It’s just magical. You get to create stuff in the moment. There’s a lot of stuff on this album that are like first or second takes. That kind of magic happens when you’re really excited.

Would it be harder to capture that magic if you were revisiting songs that you didn’t record the first time?

In a sense, yeah. A particular kind of magic, yeah. To go to a song that you’ve already made, it already has roadblocks, or a map at least. It’s possible to take a song that you’ve already done in a certain kind of way and make into a different thing, which is good, and we’ve done that. I’m trying to think of examples…

“Two Step” sounds nothing like it does on the album now.

You know what’s funny about “Two Step?” It went off that way, but it feels like, to me, after all these years, it’s starting to go back — particularly the way we’re treating the intro. It used to have this constant, driving thing, but now — me, Dave, Tim and I guess Fonzie — there’s definitely this very hushed vibe to it. That really sort of comes out of the recording. That had that sort of mysterious vibe to it. The band is playing great. It’s fun as s— to be up on stage with Dave Matthews Band.

As far as touring, are there places that you’ve never been that you’d like to go to?

Everybody’s saying Japan. “That’s just the place to go.” “You gotta go to Japan.” I’d love to check out, maybe, South Africa. It’s something that we have definitely talked about over the years, and we just never have done it. But it’d be really cool if we did.

Photo by Jon Wilkins