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By Aaron Stein
There is a certain energy in the Avett Brothers' new CD Four Thieves Gone: The Robbinsville Sessions. At times, it seems like a certain brand of anger – the rebellious scream of punk rock. It pops up in “Colorshow” when the lyrics “I’m done forever!” are practically screeched through the speakers. At other times, it is the energy of a pub full of drunken souls chanting drinking songs as a makeshift family. In “Distraction #74,” when you hear “I kind of love two girls, but now I kind of lost them both!” above the hoots and howls of the ad libbed background vocals, you can smell the booze on the breath of the confessor. Further on down the spectrum, the energy is the quiet poise of the great songsmiths. The anger has transformed to pride, the revelry into confidence, and the result is the pure Lennon-McCartney-ness of “A Lover Like You.”
The thing that makes this range special is that it comes on what is ostensibly a bluegrass album. The instrumentation (banjos, acoustic guitars, upright bass and such), the tight, high-and-lonesome harmonies, and the telling of stories about love that you want to hear the end of – there is no mistaking the roots of the Avett Brothers’ music. This says as much about the wide-branching scope of bluegrass as it does about the Avetts. The thing that makes this album worthwhile is not the skill of the pickers, the sweetness of the voices, or even the songs, most of which ring true. It is that energy that draws you in, the combination of a band that is willing to say “Fuck it” and go all out in all directions with one willing to turn inward, open up, and share its secrets with a stranger over gently plucked banjo and the low, mournful moan of a bowed bass. They’re not going to win any picking contests with Jerry Douglas or crowd a microphone with the soul of the Del McCoury Band, but this music is, in a word, honest. In the end, with these songs, that’s what it’s all about. If you’re a fan of Old Crow Medicine Show, the Avett Brothers are on the same twisted track out of bluegrass junction... just a bit further on down the line.
JamBase | New York
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