2000-Scott AvettVocals, various instruments
Seth AvettVocals, various instruments
Joe KwonCello
Jacob EdwardsDrums
Bob CrawfordBass
The Avett Brothers are a folk rock band from Mount Pleasant, North Carolina. With a signature sound combining Appalachia banjo, rhythm and blues, and tunes catchy enough to be categorized as pop, The Avett Brothers bring a 21st century mindset to sentiments such as love, betrayal, addiction and religion that are as old as the hills.
Musical brothers Scott and Seth Avett played in separate bands Nemo and Margo, respectively. The two merged their projects around 1997, and played together under the name Nemo. Several smaller projects including live Nemo performance recordings led to the brothers' first album, the self-titled EP The Avett Brothers under their newly chosen family name. Guitarist John Twomey contributed to that album, but the band's lineup soon changed. Memphis Quick 50 bassist Bob Crawford joined the band in 2002, prior to the release of their first full-length album, Country Was.
The Avett Brothers planned their own national tour for Country Was, and the local following they had been building for years grew bigger with each new city, town and festival. The band soon began working on a follow-up, and released the albums Live at the Double Door Inn and the critically acclaimed A Carolina Jubilee back to back. Working with southern Ramseur Records, the young musicians spent over 70 hours in the studio honing their style.
Harmonies, spare styling and raw energy became trademarks of The Avett Brothers' music with the release of their next album, Mignonette. 2004 saw the brothers take a different approach on The Gleam, which scaled back the polished production the brothers could now afford. All acoustic, The Gleam connected The Avett Brothers back to their folk-y roots with simple, gorgeous love songs.
A series of live and studio-produced albums carried The Avett Brothers into the next phase of their careers. 2006's Four Thieves Gone: The Robbinsville Sessions and 2007's Emotionalism earned the band a heightened level of recognition. Emotionalism debuted at the top of the Billboard Top Heatseekers Albums chart. Their following tour landed The Avett Brothers their national television debut on the Conan O'Brien show. Cellist Joe Kwon has been playing with the band since then. Widespread internet, television, and festival performances led up to the album I and Love and You in 2009.
The Avett Brothers performed at the 2011 Grammy Awards, playing "Head Full of Doubt/ Road Full of Promise." They also joined Bob Dylan and Mumford and Sons to perform "Maggie's Farm."
Judd Apatow, who used the band's
Live And Die" in his 2012 comedy
This Is 40, co-directed the documentary
May It Last: A Portrait of The Avett Brothers in 2017. In the film, Scott Avett admits the group has grown up a lot since their early days of making music: "We were self-centered hillbillies who thought the world was either gonna come to us or not. And either way, they were missing out."
Langhorne Slim bassist Paul Defiglia temporarily replaced Bob Crawford in 2011 while Crawford's 2-year-old daughter Hallie was receiving treatment at St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital for a brain tumor. Crawford returned when Hallie's condition improved and the band retained Defiglia as a touring member.
In 2016, they were inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame.
Seth Avett has released several solo albums under the name Timothy Seth Avett as Darling, the first being 2001's To Make The World Quiet.
Seth married Dexter actress Jennifer Carpenter in 2016, a year after she gave birth to their son, Isaac.
Scott is also a painter of oil-on-canvas portraits. He opened his own art gallery in Concord, North Carolina, in 2002.
Their 2007 song "Will You Return?" is used as the theme song to the PBS documentary-style cooking show A Chef's Life, which takes place in the band's home state of North Carolina.
