Songfacts®:

• This heartfelt acoustic ballad made the rounds at DMB concerts for a few years before it was finally included on Live In Las Vegas, a 2010 album that Dave Matthews released with the band's lead guitarist, Tim Reynolds. Many diehard fans assumed the tune was about Matthews' older sister Anne, who was tragically murdered by her husband in 1994. It was actually inspired by the bond he shares with his younger sister Jane, who also influenced the early DMB track "The Song That Jane Likes."
• In a 2018 interview with Vulture, Matthews explained that many of his greatest works have come out of calm moments. One example is when he stepped away from the cacophony of a studio session with producer Mark Batson and wrote "Sister" in isolation.
  
  He explained: "I remember being in the studio with Batson. Some friends were there, too, and, man, they were playing the music loud and having fun. But I left and I went into this little isolation booth and wrote what I think is one of the best songs I've written, which is a song called 'Sister.' It's about my love of my little sister, a genuine thank-you to the universe for making someone who knows me so well. After I wrote it I went back to the party in the studio and said, 'Do you guys mind if you record this song I've got?' And I sang that little song about my sister. After, it was dead silence. Then Batson said, 'Damn. That s--t was gangster.' And I was like, 'That's a very nice thing to say. [Laughs.] I think that was pretty gangster, too."
• The songs on the album were recorded on December 11 and 12 in 2009 during a show at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was the third official release from Matthews and Reynolds, following Live At Luther College (1999) and Live At Radio City (2007).
• A year before this album dropped, the Dave Matthews Band issued their seventh studio album, Big Whiskey & The GrooGrux King, which earned Grammy nominations for Best Rock Album and Album Of The Year.
• Shortly after the death of his sister Anne, Matthews sang a different tune unofficially titled "Sister" at a DMB concert in Boulder, Colorado, on March 8, 1994.