Scott Avett of the Avett Brothers doesn’t attempt to hide his roots.
Even through the phone, through the thousands of miles between North Carolina and California, his native-Concord drawl rings clear.
The Avett Brothers, composed of Scott and Seth Avett — banjoist and guitarist, respectively — and Bob Crawford on stand-up bass, are stopping by Reynolds Coliseum today to round off the Homecoming events leading up to Saturday’s game.
Having spent most of the year driving previously unexplored — and in the case of their England tour — foreign roads, the band is constantly on the move.
And much of what happens in those hours spent in the van, the “locker room” stories and the jokes, lasts only for a moment.
“We’re very focused and we’re very direct on what we’re doing and as much as we work and as clear as we our in our intentions, a lot of the funny things that have happened kind of get lost in the mix and it’s kind of here and now and then they’re gone,” Scott said.
“Right now we’ve been so, so occupied and busy with the Avett Brothers, and we’ve got more to come with it,” Scott said.
And the “more” he’s talking about consists of the second “Gleam” EP and two full-length albums.
“[The gospel album] is finished pretty much,” he said. “We’ve got a couple of finishing touches. … It’s more of an Avett family project than it is the Avett Brothers, but we’re working toward getting it cleared.”
Scott said his “realistic” hope is that the album releases within the next six months.
The band is currently working on the second of the new albums, he said, and should start recording in January or February when they “take a breath” from touring.
“In the winter everything slows down and we get an opportunity to step back and look at what we’ve done, and prepare for the next thing to do,” he said. “January and February will be two slow, quiet months for us — other than New Year’s.”
Last January, the band ushered in the new year to a sold out crowd in the Lincoln Theatre. This year, according to Scott, they will play two shows in Asheville as Jan. 1 approaches, but will spend the last minute of 2007 and the first of 2008 in Charlotte, about 20 miles south from the brothers’ hometown.
But the quality that reins in and keeps fans is certainly not influenced by the genre under which the Avett Brothers fall; according to Scott, it has no authentic genre.
“I can only say where it would be in a record store,” he said. “I don’t have a problem with them putting it under pop-rock or country. It’s clearly not bluegrass and it’s clearly not folk or, well, it’s clearly not Latin music.
“There’re too many corners that you can be put in and I don’t feel comfortable being put into any. … [The genre] changes — it could be one thing today and one thing tomorrow,” Scott said.
As for reining in the crowd tonight, Scott said the band plans to “help everybody have a good time” regardless of the game’s outcome.
“Maybe I’ll try to find a little trinket that we can use as a sort of voodoo [for] Virginia,” Scott said.
