I And Love And You / The Avett Brothers

The Avett Brothers sing of pretty girls from unfamiliar towns, to the tune of a raspy banjo unfamiliar to today’s radio waves. What they sing about transcends geography and time: love, loss, mistakes, and yard sales. Proving men can be simple without being trite. Profound without harboring pride. Soul-baring but not burdensome. This year brought signing with Columbia Records and Rick Rubin to produce the “rock” album I and Love and You. The Avett’s roots remain grounded in North Carolina soil with Dolphus Ramseur of their cradle label, Ramseur Records, as manager. Given the chance, the so called ‘Avett Nation’ request list to Rubin may have looked something like this: Don’t shine them up, don’t cut their hair, don’t force them to sing on key and whatever you do, keep your hands off the banjo. Given these, ‘tis no surprise this release meets mixed emotions: the embrace or the shove away. Sometimes both. But do these emotions defend the integrity of the artist or provide protection for the fan should the artist change into something unfamiliar or disappointing? In the rising stock of The Avett Brothers, their longtime fans have some serious investment. The band sang about their towns, reconnecting them to the tune of sounds grown up on but lost somewhere in an overindulgence of grunge, emo, or bubble gum-country. They won them over show by show. Fans stood in the crowd with them, elbow to elbow, watching their label-mates perform at the venue they just outgrew. The brothers did this with venue after rickety venue until they sold out the nicest 2000 seat theater in town. Fans stood next to the band’s families, then girlfriends (now wives) and friends to ring in at least the last five New Years. This year, for the first time in many, it appears the hometown boys will not come home for New Years. Enter the catch-22. Hometown fans helped them as they evangelized their rag-tag, punk rock bluegrass to friends down the street, in the next state, in college out west. For the first time in a long time, the city of Charlotte, North Carolina sent a band off to the big time and now lives with the consequences: sounds exposed to tinkering by production-happy producers and tight tour schedule leaving precious few stops for cities already won-over. The sound of I and Love and You differs from past releases — clearly a move towards the more widely embraceable and marketable. At first listen, Rubin appears to have terribly misappropriated the percentages of banjo and piano. The brandished banjo is a central component of past albums (thankfully, still live shows) and it’s clearly relegated to the backseat in this ride. At best it’s sharing the bench seat, rolling three deep, squashed between the piano and drum kit. Long time bassist and blood brother Bob Crawford trades in the stand up for the electric more than ever before. Thankfully, Joe Kwon’s cello takes a more prominent and, hopefully, permanent position.

Price: $11.98

In stock
ships in 3 to 5 days