"Sea shanties and drinking songs for the landlocked and sober"
The Avett Brothers' music has roots in traditional folk and bluegrass, but also captures the high spirits and no-boundaries attitude of rock & roll - which is appropriate, since rock is where Scott Avett and Seth Avett first cut their teeth as musicians. Siblings Scott (vocals, banjo) and Seth (vocals, guitar) began making music together as children, as members of a rock band called Nemo in their native North Carolina. And as history has shown us there is no harmony like brotherly harmony. Something indelible in the weave of voices and play of sensibilities is stamped into the fraternal DNA and also stems from a lifetime of shared experiences and you can clearly hear that fraternal magic at work in the songs of Scott and Seth Avett, along with bassist Bob Crawford. That magic is also abundantly evident on I and Love and You, the Avett Brothers' big-label debut produced by Rick Rubin (Beastie Boys, Johnny cash, Red Hot Chili Peppers). Its 13 songs are delivered in a style that defies pigeonholing but might be described as a rootsy amalgam of folk, country, bluegrass, rock and pop - even a jab of punk-style dynamics here and there. The naked honesty of their songs and the rousing intensity of their live shows that combines bluegrass, country, punk, pop melodies, folk, rock and roll, honky tonk, and ragtime inspired the San Francisco Chronicle to describe the Avett's as having the "heavy sadness of Townes Van Zandt, the light pop concision of Buddy Holly, the tuneful jangle of the Beatles, along with the raw energy of the Ramones". Their High Sierra debut is cause for high anticipation.