Description
New solo album from Seth Avett of the Avett Brothers (his first in 5 years), featuring songs written by lauded folk singer Greg Brown, whose songs have also been performed and recorded by Joan Baez, Willie Nelson, Lucinda Williams, Carlos Santana, Ani DiFranco, Gillian Welch, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and more.
For those who may need reminding, Greg Brown is the ultimate songwriter's songwriter. Over a forty-plus-year career, he's occupied the same rarefied air as Loudon Wainwright III and John Prine - a keen-eyed poet and diarist of the human condition. And he's done it mostly on his own. “This is a man who put forty records out because he had to,” Avett says. “He made his own record label. He played the coffee shops, the bars, the little theaters. He built it. He's a world-class artist who did it all under the radar, which is just mind-blowing to me.”
As Avett's new solo record makes clear, this collection is an expression of admiration and gratitude for one of his heroes. But it's also a reflection of his own artistry and ability as an interpreter.
Though Brown's songs have been a part of his listening diet for decades, Avett gained a more profound appreciation once he put his own voice behind them.
And though on the surface it's a covers record, it dovetails seamlessly with the most recent Avett Brothers album The Third Gleam and Seth's solo outing IV, which find him in equally stripped-down settings exploring the light and shadows of his own personal stories.
As all-encompassing as it became, the project had humble beginnings. In 2017, it was simply a way for Avett to channel his off-days while on tour into something productive - recording a few of his favorite Brown songs. He says, “I wanted somewhere functional but beautiful to disappear into in those odd, vacuous moments on the road.”
Hotel rooms became temporary studios. Mics and cables mingled with bedspreads and mini-fridges. While Avett initially considered this a colorful part of the back story, he sees it differently now. “I always thought of this project as the thing that I made in hotel rooms,” he says. “That it would be a product of the exhaustion from the road, and the environmental aspects. Hearing the air conditioning click on. Or there's some songs I did down in Mexico where you can hear these tropical birds at odd times. I like all that. But it's almost cooler that that stuff's a mystery, rather than me announcing, 'Hey I made this in hotel rooms all over the place.'
In the final stages, Avett brought the recordings to his home studio in North Carolina, and enlisted ace engineer Dana Nielsen “to mix and push the levels.” Since the album was mostly a solitary pursuit, Nielsen also acted as a valuable sounding board.
“I see him as a master songwriter,” he continues. “I don't think all of this work is indicative of his narrative. There is an autobiography through his forty records, but he is speaking for us. Like all the great authors and poets speak for us. He is in
