I’ve written several posts here on the blog about music that moves me, and a few of those posts deal with the Avett Brothers in some way or another. My most recent post dealing with music addressed the Avett Brothers specifically, and how I first met them, and how they had risen immediately to become my favorite group, to remain there for more than a decade and a half, to then gradually come to occupy the number two slot, even if it’s in such close proximity to Iron & Wine’s top slot that there’s virtually no clear dividing line. Both groups/artists have such a strong impact and influence on me that now, a few months after publishing that post, I think it would be more accurate to say that they both occupy the top slot.
Years ago, over the course of a week, I recorded my journey from only knowing the music of Top 40 radio stations to being shown a whole new world of Indie music, and I thought it would be worth adapting, and perhaps adding more to the story for publication here:
Up until the second semester of my sophomore year of college, I really only knew the world of Top 40 Pop, Alternative and Rock music. My vector for music discovery in high school and the first part of college was only through the radio stations of Southeast Idaho, which in the mid- to late-1990’s and early 2000’s would have been Z103 and KBear 101*. Whether we had any radio stations that would have played any indie band, like a college radio station, I don’t know or don’t remember. Idaho Falls didn’t have a very diverse selection of radio stations then, and it may still be the case, but I feel comparing today’s musical landscape in the digital age of streaming to that of 30 years ago is a little unfair. That all changed when I met who would become my best friend in college, Scott Wheeler. He had a huge treasure trove of music that he began sharing with me, and it wouldn’t be hyperbolic or inaccurate to say it was life-changing. He first introduced me to Death Cab for Cutie, Interpol, Kings of Leon, The Shins, The Stills, The Thrills, Wilco, Air, Athlete, Franz Ferdinand, and Iron & Wine. It’s quite likely that had I not been introduced to Iron & Wine when I was, I may not have come to love Sam Beam’s music as much as I did and do. Later, either during my senior year or very shortly after college, I came across NPR’s All Songs Considered podcast, and that has been a primary vector for new music discovery ever since, but had I not been introduced to the aforementioned artists, I may not have been in a position to even come across it or care if I did. But the music sharing between Scott and I and Darren Clark, our professor, continued throughout the rest of college.
After learning of the Avett Brothers, and almost as immediately as their rise to the top of my list of favorite musicians, the banjo became my favorite instrument. I’d played the guitar—I never was really great at it—but the more I listened to Talk on Indolence, the more I knew I needed a banjo. I eventually got one as a Christmas gift, and then got another a year or so later. Like the guitar, I never got great at it, I never have learned the banjo picking, and I haven’t really played either instrument with any regularity for years. But the point is, that before the Avetts, the banjo wasn’t a favorite instrument—not disliked, but not really fully appreciated either. It was in bands like Sufjan Stevens and Modest Mouse that I noticed interesting ways the banjo could be used. Iron & Wine has a lot of banjo, but it’s used in an expected way and an expected genre (this is in no means meant to disparage Sam Beam in any way at all, or say that his use of the banjo is any less successful or meaningful). I came across Modest Mouse “on my own” during a summer break between college semesters, and Perfect Disguise was the song that got me hooked. There’s a really good banjo part in the song, which I didn’t immediately notice or recognize as a banjo. Though I missed it at first, it’s a crucial element to the song.
Air’s Alpha Beta Gaga is another fun song: it has a bright and dancy beat, a great banjo line, which doesn’t really show itself until nearly 3 minutes in, and it’s got a fun whistling melody, if you’re into songs you can whistle along with.
While Elliott Smith and the Avett Brothers don’t share many (any?) of the same qualities, I can’t not acknowledge the huge influence and impact he had and still has on my musical tastes. While I don’t remember exactly which songs or albums I was first exposed to, I remember vividly when and were I was when I first heard his last album. So many of his songs are stellar, but Sweet Adeline, Junk Bond Trader, Cupid’s Track and Coast to Coast are all bangers.
I mentioned Sufjan Stevens earlier, and another favorite song is All the Trees of the Field Will Clap Their Hands. It’s a pretty simple song: the same melody is played for the entire duration of the four minutes of the song, but I still enjoy the song. And though there is no banjo in the song, Sister has long been a favorite of mine. And while we’re talking about Sufjan Stevens, his Christmas album is simply fantastic.
Another early discovery was the Be Good Tanyas. I came across them around the same time as Scott introduced me to Sufjan Stevens, and songs like Ship Out on the Sea, Reuben, Littlest Bird, and It’s Not Happening really hooked me, and then my appreciation for them was solidified when Hello Love came out, and For the Turnstiles instantaneously became my favorite Be Good Tanyas song.
At the start of this post, I began with the basic premise that I wouldn’t have liked the Avett Brothers as much or at all had I not previously heard any of these artists I’ve talked about thus far, but if I take a step back and look at the big picture, I think the Avetts weren’t as far outside of the musical vocabulary I possessed before 2007 (when I first heard the Avetts) or before 2002 (when I began learning of this new musical world) as I may have let on. With influences like Nirvana (an early description of the Avett Brothers I heard was that they were a cross between Nirvana and Alisson Kraus, and that their music as banjo music you can head-bang to) and Pearl Jam, I’m sure I would have liked the Avetts, or at least Talk on Indolence, when I heard them/that song.
Another previously mentioned artist is Wilco. Darren introduced me to the genius of this group and Jeff Tweedy sometime in 2003. I think. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was my first exposure to them, and that album to this day is one of my favorite albums ever. A Ghost is Born quickly rose pretty high on my list of favorite albums, with At Least That’s What You Said being my favorite from that album. They’ve released several albums since then, and the group just keeps proving to me that they belong high in my list of favorites.
Lastly, I have to acknowledge the Elephant 6 Recording Company. So many of my favorite groups are part of this collective: Circulatory System, The Olivia Tremor Control, Beulah, Elf Power, Apples in Stereo, and Neutral Milk Hotel, this last group being my first exposure to any of the Elephant 6 artists. As is the case with Elliott Smith, none of these bands are real closely stylistically related to the Avett Brothers, but they all (some of them make some very unique—even weird—music) played a huge part in shaping my my musical tastes, regardless of how or when I came across them.
I made a playlist at the time I first wrote this over ten years ago which contains all the songs mentioned above plus many others that I can point to that led me to the Avett Brothers.
*In this, I’m having a bit of a Mandela Effect moment: KBear’s Wikipedia page says the station first aired in 1999, but I could have sworn it was on air at least a year before that.