Some of my friends were on this bandwagon way before I was, truth be told. I remember several years ago them loaning out their Avett Brothers cds because when you find something amazing, you want everyone to know about it. I think, at the time, I listened to one or two songs and while I liked their sound, thought, ‘Yeah, they’re good’ and then moved along.
Timing is everything, they say. I tend to shun pretty much everything that is trendy or suggested to me unless I ask about it first. I don’t know if it’s belligerence or just one of my quirks, depends on how you look at it I suppose, but it’s across the board. Clothes, music, places, and the few TV shows I end up watching on Netflix. I have to come across them organically, on my own, or it’s just going to be lackluster for me.
Skip forward to a little over a year ago. I was at work and looking for some “work appropriate” music. Having heard their stuff before I thought they fit that category so I started listening again.
‘I And Love And You’.
That was the first one that caught my attention. Things that are outside of the norm, that open your mind a little and do the unexpected speak to me in a big way. This wasn’t your average love song. I messaged my friends, ‘Aww! I love this one!’
‘Love Like The Movies’.
This was the song that reeled me in. Again, not your typical love song but the truth behind the sentiment got me. Yes!!
Since then I’ve had several conversations about their music with my friends and I always say the thing that strikes me with all their music is the honesty. You can listen to any love song on the radio and get a garden variety song that – in a very basic way – boils down to, ‘You’re pretty! I saw you from across the room! I talked to you! Great conversation! We danced and I liked the way you shake your hips! And now we’re in love!!’
Their music is more like, ‘I love when you wear your hair in that messy sideways bun because I know you only wear it around me. You make me laugh when you imitate a barn owl. I love the freckle on your thigh. Remember that time we had to run a mile in the rain and you almost fell but caught yourself on my arm? That’s when I knew I loved you.’
It’s just….not empty. Their albums are like a timeline of their lives. It’s thoughtful, and honest. I love that they are thinkers and how that comes through in their music.
So last week I got a chance to go to their concert in Birmingham. I’m a newbie so it was my first Avett concert. Fan. Tas. Tic. My friends who were with me are veterans with 6, 7, 8, 9 shows under their belt.
One of my favorite moments was when people in the front section held up plain sheets of paper with numbers handwritten on them telling how many shows they had been to. Numbers from one to 50-something from what I could see.
I don’t think the band expected this to happen so below is the picture when the signs were raised and they are realizing what was going on.
If you’d like to look up a few of their songs might I suggest two of their newer releases that I love for starters – ‘Ain’t No Man’ and ‘I Wish I Was’. And/Or the two I mentioned earlier.
For now I will close with a few grainy snaps from the concert. Forgive the iphone zoom of its shortcomings.
I And Love and Them.
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