"Gravedigger" is a song by Dave Matthews

Dave Matthews

David John "Dave" Matthews is a South African–born American musician and occasional actor, best known as the lead vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist for the Dave Matthews Band...

 from his debut solo album

Solo album

A solo album, in popular music, is an album headlined by a current or former member of a band. A solo album may feature simply one person performing all instruments, but typically features the work of other collaborators; rather, it may be made with different collaborators than the artist is...

, Some Devil

Some Devil

Some Devil is the debut solo album by musician Dave Matthews. It was released on September 23, 2003 on RCA Records. It has been certified platinum by the RIAA, signifying over a million copies sold. The album features several guest musicians, including long-time Dave Matthews Band collaborator...

. This was the first solo single released by Matthews away from the Dave Matthews Band

Dave Matthews Band

Dave Matthews Band, sometimes shortened to DMB, is a U.S. rock band formed in Charlottesville, Virginia in 1991. The founding members were singer-songwriter and guitarist Dave Matthews, bassist Stefan Lessard, drummer/backing vocalist Carter Beauford and saxophonist LeRoi Moore. Boyd Tinsley was...

, and it won a Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance

Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance

The Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance was an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to male recording artists for works containing quality vocal performances in the rock music genre...

 at the 46th Grammy Awards held on February 8, 2004. The song has been performed live by Dave Matthews

Dave Matthews

David John "Dave" Matthews is a South African–born American musician and occasional actor, best known as the lead vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist for the Dave Matthews Band...

 (solo), by Dave Matthews with Tim Reynolds

Tim Reynolds

Tim Reynolds is a Grammy nominated multi-instrumentalist known as both a solo artist and as the lead guitarist for Dave Matthews Band...

, at Dave Matthews & Friends

Dave Matthews & Friends

Dave Matthews & Friends is an American jam band that was put together for a tour to support Dave Matthews' solo debut, Some Devil. Most of the musicians participated in the album's production...

 concerts, and occasionally as an acoustic solo by Matthews during Dave Matthews Band

Dave Matthews Band

Dave Matthews Band, sometimes shortened to DMB, is a U.S. rock band formed in Charlottesville, Virginia in 1991. The founding members were singer-songwriter and guitarist Dave Matthews, bassist Stefan Lessard, drummer/backing vocalist Carter Beauford and saxophonist LeRoi Moore. Boyd Tinsley was...

 shows. During the Dave Matthews Band

Dave Matthews Band

Dave Matthews Band, sometimes shortened to DMB, is a U.S. rock band formed in Charlottesville, Virginia in 1991. The founding members were singer-songwriter and guitarist Dave Matthews, bassist Stefan Lessard, drummer/backing vocalist Carter Beauford and saxophonist LeRoi Moore. Boyd Tinsley was...

's tours in 2008 and 2009, it was played regularly by the full band.

Matthews said about the song http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1476086/20030807/matthews_dave.jhtml:

"It's kind of these different stories that are brought together by walking through a graveyard with their names and the dates of their births and their deaths, and the stories that came out of their lives. It's sort of just telling those stories and some others as you wander through a graveyard and what you might think if you could walk into the graves and find out what people went through to get there."

There was also an acoustic version of the song on the album Some Devil

Some Devil

Some Devil is the debut solo album by musician Dave Matthews. It was released on September 23, 2003 on RCA Records. It has been certified platinum by the RIAA, signifying over a million copies sold. The album features several guest musicians, including long-time Dave Matthews Band collaborator...

. The song began as an intro played twice solo by Matthews at full-band DMB shows in the spring of 2002, before debuting as a full solo song in the same tour. In the original "Gravedigger Intro" version, only two people are mentioned: Merrill Lee (1905–1969) and Robert John Smith.

Music video

A music video

Music video

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...

 was produced for the song, directed by Mark Pellington

Mark Pellington

-Life and career:Pellington was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He directed The Mothman Prophecies, a 2002 film starring Richard Gere dealing with mysterious deaths foretold by a strange red-eyed flying creature, Mothman, as well as Arlington Road in 1999 starring Tim Robbins and Jeff Bridges....

. While filming the video in Montana

Montana

Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...

, Matthews lost his wedding band in the grave, though it was eventually recovered. The video, much like the song, was dark. Elements within the video, such as a hand wielding a key, symbolize death. The lyrics describe, among other things, a young boy who dies in a bike crash.

Covers and cultural references

Willie Nelson

Willie Nelson

Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...

 did his own version of the song that appeared on the 2008 album Moment of Forever

Moment of Forever

Moment of Forever is an album from American country music artist Willie Nelson. This album was released on January 29, 2008, on the Lost Highway Records label...

.
The song was also used in the second episode of the ABC series FlashForward

Flashforward

A flashforward is an interjected scene that takes the narrative forward in time from the current point of the story in literature, film, television and other media. Flashforwards are often used to represent events expected, projected, or imagined to occur in the future...

Chart performance

Chart (2003)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Alternative Songs	35
U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks	35