The new Judd Apatow/Michael Bonfiglio documentary May it Last premiered last night in hundreds of theaters across the United States, introducing thousands of people to the North Carolina-based band The Avett Brothers. Before buying their entire back catalog and purchasing tickets to a string of shows, people may be interested in hearing more. Luckily, there are a ton of Avett Brothers performances on YouTube. A few folks who know the band’s history pretty well put together seven playlists so that new fans can get to know various aspects of their work.
David Butler attended many shows in the early years and has put some of the video he captured up on YouTube as Sunday Rehab. David cautions that the video quality of these early clips isn’t the best because they are pre-hi-definition, pre-smart phone videos. In those early days, YouTube also required users to shrink videos before uploading them. Fun fact: Michael Bonfiglio used snippets from five of these videos in May it Last.
Tim Mossberger, the “Avett Archivist,” creator of As My Life Turns to a Song (the Avett Brothers Archive) and co-creator of Tales of Avett News, put together this playlist. His original title wouldn’t fit: “Bluegrass meets Nirvana, grunge-grass, porch ‘n roll, Depression era dance music, country punk, amped up old time country, new grass, alternative country, country, Rock ‘n Roll, Americana but really its just Honest Music.”
There is an anonymous somebody or somebodies in Avett fandom, famous for the high quality of the concert videos they have been shooting and putting up on YouTube for six years. DCRANGERFAN seems to go to all the “can’t miss” shows, which leads to conjecture that it is a collective of people rather than just one super generous fan. They want to stay anonymous, I say let them stay anonymous and let’s all say thank you for the awesome footage! I asked the mysterious DCRANGERFAN to put together a list of favorite videos. How hard it must have been to choose!
Although May it Last makes fleeting references to the importance of faith in their lives, The Avett Brothers have a deep songbook based on the gospel songs of their youth and their father’s youth. Greg Burke has put together a playlist of highlights of The Avett Brothers’ gospel catalog.
I put this playlist together to introduce a friend of mine to the band. The songs are in chronological order, from their first performance of All My Mistakes in 2005 to their performance of Hand Me Down Tune on Prairie Home Companion earlier this year. It was really a challenge to cut it down to 30, but this playlist includes their official music videos and a cross-section of representative live performances.
Scott and Seth usually write together and perform together, but they often record solo tracks. Mike “Crackerfarm” Beyer, who was seen throughout May it Last, often records these efforts and posts them to his YouTube channel. I tried to make a Top 10 list, I really did. It was hard to limit it to 12. Of course the four Untitled songs are in there, as well as Tom T. Hall’s Country Is, Jason Molina’s Just Be Simple, and the traditional Am I Born to Die. No Scott playlist is complete without his 2008 solo version of November Blue. And how could I exclude the two videos where his daughter Eleanor plays a starring role?
It is no easier to choose the top 10 (or 12) Seth Avett solo videos. From his older originals including The Ballad of Love and Hate, In the Curve, and for a fantastic surprise to fans At the Beach in Riviera Maya, February 20, 2000, to his newest Darling record, Seth has a large catalog of solo material. But no top list of his videos would be complete without his cover of Brandi Carlile’s Save Part of Yourself, shot on the Highline in New York City, or Sam Cooke’ A Change is Gonna Come, or Beyonce’s Halo, or the newest addition to the series of classic Seth Avett covers, the traditional A Beautiful Golden Somewhere.