Avett Brothers Announce New Album & Share New Song

Earlier this week, The Avett Brothers announced that they will be releasing their 6th studio album via Universal Records.  The new album will be titled The Carpenter and will be released on the 11th of September.  The second song on the album is called “Live and Die” and they have made it available for you to listen to on either NPR or their own Soundcloud page.  It starts out with their classic banjo-laden folk sound and ends with more of a country feel than we’re used to hearing from them, and I love it. “Live and Die” will be available for download on July 3rd. Here’s to hoping the Avetts return to their rough and unpolished ways.

Top 5 Avett Brothers Songs I Hope to Hear Tonight

The Avett Brothers are coming to town tonight.  They will be playing a show at the Brady Theater which is a gorgeous sit-down venue, and I am more than thrilled to get to see them for a second time this evening.  I saw them back in 2009 at  Cain’s Ballroom shortly after the release of I and Love and You.  Cain’s is a standing only ballroom and let’s just say that the house was a rockin’.  It was a great show, which I wrote about here, but I am hoping that with a more intimate venue, we will get an even more intimate show with an atypical song selection.  These guys know how to rock, but they also know how to swoon. Some of my favorite songs of theirs are ballads and I have put together a list of the five slow-tempo songs that I would most like to hear played at the show tonight.  (I decided not to include any songs that were played in the last show, such as “Murder In the City”.)  Hope you enjoy the list. What songs would be at the top of your list?

The Avett Brothers Cover Roger Miller on CMT Unplugged

It’s been a little while since we have heard anything new from everybody’s favorite indie bluegrass act.  Well they recently took time out of their hectic touring schedule to make an appearance on CMT Unplugged.  As a part of their set, they played the classic Roger Miller tune “Where Have All the Average People Gone.”  In the vein of their stripped down Gleam EP’s, they slow it down and turn it into a gorgeous ballad that fits right in with the rest of their catalog.  I really dig this track and would love to see them release an entire album of old country classics from the 50′s and 60′s.  Here’s hoping…

Keeping Tabs On “The Avett Brothers”

While no official timeline has been revealed, it looks like the follow up to 2009′s I and Love and You will make it’s way to our ears by the end of the year.  The are currently in Asheville’s Echo Mountain studio with I and Love and You producer Rick Rubin.  It appears that The Brothers are aiming to out-do themselves again.  In an interview with Billboard.com, Scott Avett shares that “this time (they) have a really long list of songs, and we’ll just carve it from there and let the best and most appropriate songs see the light of day.”

Apparently the creative juices have been flowing lately, as they have an abundant amount of material to work with.  They have already completed one session of recording and have discovered they need to limit the amount of songs they record this go around at 25. “We have definitely that many we could do. The number of songs could probably go triple or quadruple that if we want,” says Avett.  As an avid fan, this is exciting to me both that they have an abundance of songs to start with, but that they are taking their time and not just slapping together a dozen songs so that they can get a paycheck and get back out on the road.

Speaking of…it won’t be long before The Brothers are out on the road again.  They kick off a new stateside tour on the 18th in D.C., which will quickly turn into festival hopping.  They are already scheduled for the Savannah Music Festival, The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Mountain Jam 2011, and many more (seriously). Unfortunately this tour won’t lead them through Arkansas or Oklahoma, but I’m hoping the wife and I can make it down to Dallas to catch them at the Palladium in April.

And if you have yet to give The Avett Brothers a listen, start today by downloading The Gleam for only $1.99 on AmazonMP3.