AVETT BROTHERS
Avett Brothers courtesy Crackerfarm
On their soul-bearing ninth album “True Sadness,” the Avett Brothers conjure the full weight of tragedy, bleeding themes of profound loss, divorce and childhood cancer into a landscape of confessional roots-pop.
Nowhere is this truer than in the single “Satan Pulls the Strings,” a rollicking anthem about self-sufficiency by the North Carolina folk-rockers led by Seth and Scott Avett, with bassist Bob Crawford adding a snarky bassline that sounds like barely repressed rage. The rage is well-earned: Seth, heart on sleeve, is channeling the dissolution of his first marriage (he’s since married actress Jennifer Carpenter), while Crawford is striking a chord for his daughter, Hallie, who has endured chemotherapy, brain surgery and seizures since being diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2009 at age 2. (Hallie’s cancer even forced Crawford to take a brief hiatus in 2011.)
As with every Avett Brothers album since their 2000 debut, Crawford is seeking therapy by fingering the scars of melancholy. “I look at every one of our records as encapsulating a part of our lives. We’ve been doing it that way for 16 years,” Crawford says. “My daughter had a brain tumor and was going through radiation, and Seth’s marriage was falling apart, so it was almost like, I could feel Seth’s pain and Seth could feel mine. My heart broke for him.”
Still, if Seth and Scott Avett’s lyrics are confessional, they are also plaintive, restless and suffused with sentiment. The plucky bluegrass meditation “Divorce Separation Blues” hews closer to the Avett’s old-school acoustic ballads. And then there are cases of sonic boldness in the stomp-and-clap single “Ain’t No Man,” the product of a collaboration with decorated hip-hop producer Rick Rubin, who has helped steer the Avett’s evolution from roots-rockers to pop-synth experimenters. “Got a whole lot of reasons to be mad/Let’s not pick one,” Seth sings on this latter song, which sounds like a plea for redemption amid personal grief. “‘True Sadness’ to me is the concept that we walk through life, feeling the sweetness of joy, the moments we have with our loved ones,” Crawford says. “We experience that while also suffering a little bit, feeling the pain and fragility of life.”
The Avett Brothers will perform 8 pm Saturday, Feb. 4, at Pompano Beach Amphitheater, 1801 NE Sixth St. $64.50-$74.50, 954-519-5500 or TheAmpPompano.org. ~ Phillip Valys
