My first Dave Matthews Band show.  I’m not going to lie, the memories are hazy on this one.   I remember following behind the Black Saab in my 1983 Buick LeSabre from Quinnipiac to Hartford.  To be perfectly honest I have no idea who was with me in my car, or who else was in the back seat of the Black Saab.  Maybe someone else can help me remember.  17 years was a long time ago.

The most important thing about this show was that it was Black Saab and jerseygirL’s first date.   We took Exit 33 – Jennings Road – off of Route 91 to get to the venue.   5 years later to the date, they would get married in New Jersey.  Today, they live on Jennings Road in some far away part of Colorado.  Life and love can come full circle sometimes.

The one song that really stands out in my memory from that night was from the encore.  “Angel From Montgomery” is a song written and sung originally by John Prine.  He is a white man, but the song is written from a woman’s perspective.

I am an old woman named after my mother
My old man is another child that’s grown old
If dreams were lightning thunder was desire
This old house would have burnt down a long time ago

It was a song rarely performed by the band and was one that none of us in our crew had ever heard before.  And just to confuse things even more, the song was sung by Boyd Tinsley – the band’s violinist.  Listening to a black man lament about the time:

When I was a young girl well, I had me a cowboy
He weren’t much to look at, just free rambling man
But that was a long time and no matter how I try
The years just flow by like a broken down dam.

On this night in Hartford, the jerseygirL found her cowboy.  As 20 year old college kids, who knew how true these lyrics would be almost half of a lifetime later. 

Make me an angel that flies from Montgomery
Make me a poster of an old rodeo
Just give me one thing that I can hold on to
To believe in this living is just a hard way to go

If I could only convince them to move back to Jersey…

Dave Matthews Band
September 2, 1995
9/2/95
Meadows Music Theatre, Hartford, CT

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#41
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Ants Marching
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Angel from Montgomery
Tripping Billies