In May 1994, Dave Matthews Band began recording Under The Table and Dreaming – its first studio album and RCA debut – at Bearsville Studios in upstate New York with famed producer Steve Lillywhite (Rolling Stones, U2). Tim Reynolds, a guitarist who frequently performed live with DMB and had also began to play shows with Matthews as part of an acoustic duo, played on all tracks. Bama Rags released Recently, a five-track EP, on May 17.
DMB celebrated the September 27, 1994 release of Under The Table and Dreaming with a hometown show at McIntire Amphitheater, where the mayor of Charlottesville proclaimed it Dave Matthews Band Day. The group embarked on its first national tour thereafter and also played its first European dates.
Under The Table and Dreaming debuted at No. 34 on The Billboard 200 and spent 116 consecutive weeks on the chart, peaking at No. 11. The success of the album’s first single, “What Would You Say,” at radio expanded the band’s audience. In November, DMB shot footage for the accompanying video – its first – during a return engagement at the Fox Theatre in Boulder, CO.
