I and Love and You by The Avett Brothers

Natives of Concord, North Carolina, there closeness to the North Carolina Mountains is apparent in the feel of their major label debut album. But not only is their mountain influence apparent but the influence of The Beatles, punk rock, bluegrass and for me, a very eerie similarity to Brandon Flowers and The Killers. With such an eclectic sound, you would think that they would fail to grab your attention because of the strange mesh of sounds. However, this is not the case. Never before have I heard these various sounds used in a more genius way. Most times when an artist is trying to create a new genre of music, which The Avett Brothers have achieved, the sounds comes out as trying too hard. With this album when you notice a similarity to a song, band or genre, before you have an oppurtunity to register the similarity, the song has moved on in a direction that isn't anticipated and remarkably refreshing. At the beginning of the album, the first visual that was running through my mind was a beautiful autumn day somewhere in New England. Honestly, it would have made a wonderful addition to the now cancelled "October Road". But as the album progresses, you no longer consider it just another folk album. It is much more than that. Surprise yourself and take the time to listen to this album. You will learn something about music if that is what you are looking for or if you are just wanting to relax and listen to a good record, this will accomplish that.

Where is that Genius when you need him?

Every year in California, there is a meeting of minds called the TED Conference. At this conference people from all over the Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) industry gather to discuss new ideas. At this years TED conference, Elizabeth Gilbert, author of "Eat, Pray, Love" was invited to speak and when she spoke, she spoke of creativity and the creative process.






I believe that there is something to this theory of hers. Back in 2004, Bob Dylan was on "60 Minutes" being interviewed by Ed Bradley. During that interview, something was said that made a profound impression on me as a musician. . It starts as a discussion about the song “Blowin’ in the Wind". Ed Bradley asks Bob if it was true that he wrote the song in 10 minutes. Bob responds with “Probably”.
EB: Where did it come from?
BD: It just came, it came from…um…like a… right out of that wellspring of creativity I would think, you know.
EB: Do you ever look at music you‘ve written and looked back at it and said “Whoa… That surprised me.”
BD: I used to… I don’t do that anymore. Uh… I don’t know how I got to write those songs.
EB: What do you mean, you don’t know how?
BD: Those early songs were almost magically written. I try to sit down and write something like that…ah, there’s a magic to that and it’s not Siegfried and Roy kind of magic, you know, it’s a different kind of penetrating magic and you know, I did it at one time.
EB: You don’t think you could do it today?
BD: (Shakes head no)
EB: Does that disappoint you?
BD: Well, you can’t do something forever and I did it once. I can do other things now but I can’t do that.


If you have ever listened to Bob Dylan's early works, you would have to agree with this assessment. There is a voice behind his words that isn't just the voice of a man but the voice of a generation.