(2012) Purchased new from The Avett Brothers website. This collector’s edition album came in a pine box with a slide back top; inside included the album, CD, 45 of Live And Die, a lyrics sheet for each song with a monthly calendar printed on one side, and photos of the band.  The iconography within the entire package includes carpentry tools such as lathes, planes, saws, and axes along with magpies, hearts, and diamonds.

Flashback to the Grammy Awards in 2011. This scrappy unknown band played a set with Bob Dylan and Mumford and Sons.  I sat in front of the TV and couldn’t stop smiling.  “Who ARE these guys?” Banjo, kick drum, cello, stand up bass, and guitar. It was love at first listening.

Scott and Seth Avett hail from North Carolina.  Their roots music is a playful combination of bluegrass, rock and roll, pop, and country. Lovely gentle songs about heartbreak, anthemic calls for love and understanding, and youthful urging to “live the life you choose to live”. Songs about family, about traveling, about “pretty girls from” all over, about where ya from, and about knowing oneself.

The Carpenter is packaged in a gatefold jacket. For the new album collectors out there, a gatefold jacket is the kind that folds open.  A gatefold jacket allows for more graphic artistry and many times means you have a double record set. Such is the case here.

SIDE A

1. The Once And The Future Carpenter (4:56)
2. Live And Die (4:30)
   
3. Winter In My Heart (4:55)

SIDE B

1. Pretty Girl From Michigan (2:46)
2. I Never Knew You (2:54)
3. February Seven (4:45)

SIDE C

1. Through My Prayers (4:13)
2. Down With The Shine (3:57)
3. A Father’s First Spring (4:04)

SIDE D

1. Geraldine (1:34)
2. Paul Newman And The Demons (4:42)
3. Life (3:49)

I have been attending concerts since 1970-Tom Jones Live at the Forum (thanks Mom!).  I have seen amazing performances with friends, friends I have not met yet, and people I love.  Two of my favorites are the two Avett Brothers concerts I have attended with my daughters. The first time was in Los Angeles at the Nokia Theater, the second time at the Long Beach Terrace Theater. Both of these shows included singing out loud, dancing in the aisles, and a joyful tear or two.

My girls and I often remark how we would like to have certain famous folks as neighbors. We think about how great it would be to say good morning over the hedge to Adam Shenkman or Amy Poehler. I think having Scott or Seth as neighbors would be just as satisfying.