The Avett Brothers aren’t afraid of singing about love and they aren’t afraid of using banjos to do it. Their 2007 album “Emotionalism” has the band nominated for two Country Music Television awards, debuting on national TV on Conan O’Brien, and making No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Heatseekers Album chart. Now, after seven years of steadily growing popularity through word of mouth about the rollicking energy of their live performance, The Avett Brothers will be performing in Los Angeles for the first time Sunday at the El Rey.
The trio consists of brothers Scott and Seth Avett, on the banjo and acoustic guitar, respectively, and their upright bassist Bob Crawford. Their sound is a rare hybrid of traditional bluegrass instrumentation and the melodic integrity of rock songwriting. Avoiding the tired chord progressions and song structures of their traditionalist contemporaries, the band allows its many influences, from country singers from the Piedmont area of North Carolina to later experiments in hard-core rock, a place in their music.
For all the synthesis that distinguishes their sound, the brothers’ first musical experiences were more orthodox. As kids living in the South, they listened to the music that dominated their area: country and old rock. Scott Avett remembers his first bout of enthusiastic musicianship was imitating Darryl Hall and John Oates.
“That was the first thing I latched onto ““ started imitating and lip syncing and letting it be known that this was the greatest thing,” Scott said.
Oddly enough, they discovered pop music through an uncle who lived in an even more remote part of the Piedmont area, in the mountains.
“He introduced us to Van Halen,” Scott recalled. “He was a guy who would go out and find records. This was our first experience of someone saying, “˜Hey, don’t listen to what’s on the radio. Check out this song instead.'”
Partly a matter of rebellion, the Avetts were determined to remove themselves from the music that dominated the Piedmont Area. They started playing acoustic shows out of high school and later formed a hard-core band called Nemo with guitarist John Twomey. It was, as Scott put it, “very loud and very heavy.”
But for all the need to leave home musically, something was gnawing at the Nemo banjo player, and that something was bluegrass.
The brothers were increasingly influenced by old-time bluegrass bands and began to imitate them. But their indefatigable rock influence continued to shape their development and the result was an Avett Brothers prototype; mediated, but not determined, by bluegrass. Their vocal harmonies were more like Alice in Chains than the Everly Brothers and the structure of their songs, even the love ballads, had the rollicking feel of power pop. And as for the energy of their live shows, the brothers never left hard-core territory.
“I always tell people that we got lucky in really not knowing that what we were doing was a hybrid of something, or original sounding, or something that could even be considered fresh. We just kind of did it, and once we realized it, we thought, “˜Hey, let’s keep taking this where it’s going to change naturally,'” Scott said.
It was good timing. Nemo imploded under the weight of bluegrass and the Avett Brothers was formed. The band’s subsequent albums contained songs in which their rock and bluegrass influences resonated together beautifully.
“Mignonette,” their 2004 release, includes the track “At the Beach,” a pop song with a lush soundscape and the achingly stirring but seemingly effortless vocal melodies of a refined songwriting talent. It would be reminiscent of a Beatles pop song if, in some other world, Lennon or McCartney had grown up with a background in bluegrass.
Fifth album “Four Thieves Gone: Robbinsville Sessions” showcases the band’s lyrical capabilities. The best songs are about romance but are frenzied and rife with irony. The subject matter is ordinary ““ trying to date two girls at once and losing both, trying to maintain an on-the-rocks marriage, or even feeling self-conscious in a bathing suit ““ but the lyrics contain wit and narrative talent beyond their content’s normalcy.
But as they refined their music, the Avett Brothers have drifted away from bluegrass, most notably with their latest album, “Emotionalism.” The banjo is important to their sound, but they are bluegrass musicians in the same way Bob Dylan is a folk singer, using the genre just as a foundation.
“It must be known that I haven’t listened to a bluegrass record,” Scott admitted, “in probably two to three years. It’s not something that I follow more than out of convenience.”
Instead, “Emotionalism” is a work that is indicative of the direction the Avett Brothers are going. For the first time ever, they enlisted the help of a producer and have added tentative fourth member cellist Ben Kwon. The songs are cleaner but retain the raw energy of an Avett Brothers live performance. Love ballads regardless, the Avett Brothers perform as if they were in a punk band, breaking a sweat, giving the soles of their feet a beating, and stretching their vocal chords to the highest tenor.
“I give a lot. Seth gives a lot. Bob gives a lot. On stage and in our songwriting, we give everything. Really,” Scott said.
Even if they’re not really making bluegrass mainstream, the Avett Brothers are still leaving behind a legacy.
“I hear a lot of people who say they’re buying a banjo because they came to our show.”