In their parents’ home off a dusty, dirt road in Concord, North Carolina, the Avett Brothers started their ascent to fame. Their father, a Methodist preacher and Dylan-esque guitarist, inspired them to pursue music, while their eldest brother Scott’s creativity and artistic eye launched a now critically-acclaimed career.
The beginning of the 21st century wasn’t overrun with folk artists. In fact, after the likes of Bob Dylan and the death of Mr. Cash, “folk,” or its past equivalent, hit a stalemate. There was the iconic Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? multi-Grammy winning album, but it’s debatable what genre it belonged to, exactly. It was soulful, harmony-heavy, gospel-tinged bluegrass, not the folky, casual, coffee shop type of sound we’re so familiar with now. It was reminiscent, not new age.
Then there was the Avett Brothers, who inspired modern-day folk. Then Mumford and Sons, who made folk “cool.”
Mumford’s slow ballads that quickly progressed into powerful, banjo-driven choruses were their signature (until their 2015 album Wilder Mind, which ditched the banjo and the folk genre completely). They were Englishmen making fame from, until they arrived, a very America-centric genre, full of Appalachian roots; banjos and mandolins and upright basses. They somehow reverberated off the ears of millions and then quickly crept themselves into the mainstream. They brought a new sound to the top 40, and inadvertently triggered hundreds of other Mumford-esque bands to not be musical rejects anymore. Before Mumford, banjos were never hipster or cool, they were something solely limited to bluegrass and country. Now, banjos are literally everywhere, you can’t escape them, even pop and R&B artists are using them.
But it’s arguable whether or not Mumford & Sons should get the credit for reviving banjo music. They were complete outsiders, and that’s why their approach worked so well. However, the direct influence for their multi-platinum phenomenon can be linked right back home to North Carolina. Their sound is strikingly southern, but still not considered to be a part of country music, much like the Concord natives The Avett Brothers. The Avetts are a huge conglomeration of everything American roots, mixed up in a new way, with a banjo thrown in.
Music is all inspired by other music, and it’s nearly impossible to trace the origins of everything that’s released, but it’s safe to say the driving force of Mumford, a now-household name, got the credit for re-inventing folk while the Avetts and their NC roots got lost in the process. In an interview shortly after the release of Sigh No More, Mumford’s first album, banjo player Winston Marshall said that he and the rest of the band listened to the Avetts’ independently released album from 2006, Four Thieves Gone, three or four times a day.
The Avetts were a gateway to 21st century folk string bands. If you were an avid folk nerd, you’ve heard of both bands, but if you listen to top 40 or other genres, you’ve probably only heard Mumford’s “Little Lion Man” or “I Will Wait.” The Avetts started out in 2001, when Mumford-frontman Marcus Mumford was still in secondary school. Their first few albums were a mix of gritty, harsh harmonies in thick, southern accents and loud banjo melodies. Some of it hard to really listen to and appreciate unless you already liked country music – but Cash country, not Brad Paisley or Blake Shelton. It was country, but it wasn’t, hence the title of their first album Country Was. They sing about their hometown a lot, like in “Jenny and the Summer Day,” which is the musical version of a Carolina summer in Concord (which I’d know, considering it’s also my hometown). “Pretty Girl From Matthews” is about a girl from a town about 30 minutes south.
The music got slowly less-twangy and more mainline Americana, earning a Grammy nomination for their 2013 album The Carpenter in the Americana category. Ironically, they performed at the 2011 Grammys with Mumford and Sons and Bob Dylan. The thing about the Avetts is their sound is so definitive to North Carolina, like Wagon Wheel, except they’re actually from the state they sing about (Old Crow Medicine Show are from Virginia, not North Carolina). Their twangy yet soft sound has triggered an entire movement, and revived banjo-picking string bands (Old Crow, arguably, have helped), that the likes of Mumford and so many more have followed. They’ve become North Carolina’s national anthem, from Boone to Wilmington, and essentially a symbol of state pride. You don’t know North Carolina until you know the Avetts – it’s like a right of passage.
This all means that North Carolina is vital in the revitalization of folk music, but with all revitalization comes gentrification – the natives and founding member get pushed out to make room for the cooler, hip outsiders with newsboy caps and petticoats. The Avetts inspired this movement, and they never truly got the credit they deserved.
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