Viva Las Vegas! - Album Review

Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds have done it again with their new dueling guitar spectacular of Dave Matthews Band hits, Live in Las Vegas. This album has a lot of new tracks never released in this acoustic format, mostly off of the Big Whiskey & The Gru Grux King Album (Alligator Pie, Funny The Way It Is, Shake Me Like A Monkey, Lying In The Hands Of God, and You & Me). I have always found that discovered that when you get to hear Dave's songs stripped down to this intimate sounds you pay more attention to his versatile voice and amazing lyric writing.
The Live in Las Vegas signature guitar track is a very unique cover of Led Zeppelin's Kashmir. This track is simply mind-blowing. A part of me wishes Dave had added his voice to it, but this was a Time Reynolds one-man band performance that did not need Dave at all. Tim Reynolds can make an acoustic guitar sound like almost any other instrument, or in this case the entire Led Zeppelin band. Be sure to also check out Little Red Bird, a little ditty that you can tell Dave is very much infatuated with and will probably grow into a concert favorite with the full band.
Save Me makes its way back into the set list after an impressive premier on their Live at Radio City album and becoming one of my personal favorite songs. Other all-time DMB classics on the Vegas album are Crush, Bartender, Grey Street and Two-Step. If you are able to get your hands on the limited edition bonus disc, Double Down, make sure you listen to another one of my all-time favorites, Rye Whiskey.
Seeing Tim Reynolds add so much to the DMB 2009 tour by playing electric guitar, I half-way expected to see this 2-man concept get a little spark of electricity under the Vegas lights, but they stayed true to their Luther College roots, keeping it unplugged and full of intriguing new sounds.

Tim Reynolds - Stream / Kashmir