DAVE MATTHEWS AND ROBERT RANDOLPH PERFORM FREE SHOWS FOR ARMY CADETS

The Dave Matthews Band and Robert Randolph perform 2 free shows on the campus of Army giving cadets the worlds loudest pep rally.

With over 100 colleges competing to win a free Dave Matthews Band concert on their campus and hold the worlds loudest pep rally, The United States Military Academy was named the lucky winner and not only will they be getting a free Dave Matthews Band concert, but they’ll be getting two! Dave Matthews Band and Robert Randolph & the Family Band will be performing two concerts at the intimate Eisenhower Hall Theatre on the campus at West Point, NY November 14th and 15th, to insure that all cadets have the opportunity to attend a free DMB on their campus. Dave Matthews gave college students around the country a chance to have his band perform for free on their campus and fans were invited to text invitations to Dave Matthews Band and over 3 million invitations were received.

We caught up with Robert Randolph to discuss his thoughts on why it’s so important to give back to our troops, who have given so much to our country.

“It’s going to be fun to play for the troops, you know. I may start crying and what not and I don’t cry for nothing. Playing for the troops with The Dave Matthews thing it’s going to be cool man to show that their passion. It was totally a vote in kind of thing and whoever wants the show to happen at their base or their campus and what not, we’ll see how it goes. Army really won and it’s going to be a lot of cadets out there really just happy that they’ve been given some kind of musical joy, something to keep their minds off all the sadness because it’s kind of sad when you think about it.”

The 2 shows on campus at West Point come just a few months after Dave Matthews put together a free show on the campus at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. These two performances will be Dave Matthews last public performances of 2007 as the band look to get into the studio to record another album in 2008. Dave has already performed several of the upcoming songs on his recent summer tour including ‘Eh Hee’ and ‘Cornbread’ which have both become instant crowd favorites. Dave’s last summer tour concluded in possibly the show of the year with a tour ending performance at The Hollywood Bowl in California. Guests who sat in on the October 2nd Hollywood Bowl show were banjo player Danny Barnes, John Mayer, Ziggy and Stephen Marley and the entire Stephen Marley Band. Dave announced it was his wife’s birthday that night as well, so you know it meant a little extra special to him. Robert Randolph will be reforming his side project, The Word for four special shows in December on the East coast. Long time friends and collaborators who have helped Robert form The Word are John Medeski, Chris Chew and Cody and Luther Dickenson of The North Mississippi All-Stars. The Word will be performing select venues in Hartford, New York, Washington and Philadelphia at the end of December.