At the risk of drawing the (strangely mellow) outrage of DMB fans everywhere, I'll start by saying that Matthews does considerably well with his limited vocal abilities. Just like Metallica got by on their thrash metal style, Matthews is more of a vibe curator than an actual vocalizer. And that's a good thing, because anyone attending a Dave Matthews concert hoping for some tight, well-delivered vocals probably isn't an actual Dave Matthews fan. Dave doesn't "sing" so much as he yelps along to a melody. You can't even call it scatting, because that would be an insult to real jazz improvisers. No, Dave just opens his mouth and lets his heart guide his mouth. Unfortunately, his heart is usually very, very stoned and can't form a syllable without turning it into an alien-like yodel.
