Avett Brothers set to bring rootsy rock to Huntington

For area Americana music fans, this concert is the Halloween equivalent of a costumed kid walking up to the neighbor's house, ringing the door bell and a whole cabinet of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups being poured into your bucket.

Touring off of their hand-crafted, Rick Rubin-produced American Recordings debut, "I and Love and You," the Concord, N.C.-based band The Avett Brothers, much loved in their three previous area performances, come strolling into the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center in downtown Huntington tonight, Thursday, Oct. 29.

Show time is 8 p.m. Opening the show is long-time Avetts' friend and former Columbia Records artist, Nicole Atkins and The Black Sea, a New Jersey-based act that has performed everywhere from Lollapalooza to multiple appearances on "The Late Show" with David Letterman.

A few tickets remain at $25 for the show produced by Outback Concerts in conjunction with Pat Guthrie and The V Club.

Known for blending heart-crafted words into unique songs with a Beatles-like sense of harmonies and melodies and with a thrash-grass intensity and penchant for diving into the crowds during live shows, the band -- Scott Avett (banjo/vocals), Seth Avett (guitar/vocals), Bob Crawford (upright bass) and touring member Joe Kwon (a cellist who has been traveling with the band since 2007) -- is in the midst of a fall tour in which it is hitting a bevy of theaters.

Nearly all the dates are early sellouts, including a sold-out Halloween night show at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville and a sold-out New Year's Eve date at Asheville's Thomas Wolfe Auditorium.

Crawford, a member of the brother band since the beginning, said they're thankful for so much love and support in places like West Virginia where they've been coming since the first tour in 2002.

"We kind of learned early on that we couldn't get booked in New York but we could play Athens, Ohio, and Chestertown, Md., and all of these places that are a little bit off of the beaten path," Crawford said by phone. "We've kept going back because we got invited back and that is the way we do it, that is where the people are who care. It has always worked. There are some special places in the country that not everybody knows about and we're lucky enough to go there."

That certainly is evident here in the Huntington area as the brother-built-band along with long-time manager Dolph Ramseur, have grown their base here with two big shows in summers past at Appalachian Uprising and a sold-out show last year at the V Club.

Crawford, the oldest member of the band and who went to art school with the Avetts, said he feels blessed to have been oI such an amazing journey with the two brothers who play a long, long list of instruments on the new record including banjo, guitar, harmonium, piano, drums, percussion and vocals in addition to writing the songs.

"It's been pretty amazing," said Crawford, who booked the band's first 21-city tour back in 2002. "The confidence they exude I've not seen with any other human beings ever and they use that confidence for good. Their knack of writing words and melodies, too, I have watched them craft, especially in the early years, and it was amazing how regimented and disciplined they were about the actual crafting of a song and that has always been so inspiring to me. Every night a different line will jump out of a song and I will be as awed by the way they say what they say as everyone else."

Crawford's not alone in his up-close awe of the brothers' penchant for poetically-penning a song and searing it in memorable melodies.

Last year, the Avett Brothers, who have sold more than 150,000 copies of their Ramseur Records releases (five full-length CDs and two EPs), caught the ears of legendary label-head and producer, Rick Rubin. Rubin's golden studio touch has been felt by everyone from Metallica and the Beastie Boys to Johnny Cash.

Crawford said they were at first intimidated but warmed up to the focused but mellow glow of Rubin, considered by many to be the greatest record producer of his generation.

Once they checked their insecurities at the door, Crawford said the band experienced a palpable musical growth in Rubin's Malibu-based studio, The Document Room, where they recorded 17 songs with him. Thirteen made the album.

"We've had a lot of musical growth playing night after night for several years and we felt like we've had great growth and support and that has really flowered over the past several month because he challenged us," Crawford said. "We were there and had to complete the task at hand and it was challenging. Before we might play a song five times and get a take that was OK. We were playing a song 50 or 60 times or playing it for three or four hours and maybe coming back in a few days and doing it in different ways and playing a certain part longer and just messing with the arrangements. I think that really improved the way we play."

Those arrangements feature both brothers taking turns on the piano (as well as guest spots by Benmont Tench of Tom Petty's band), and the band sounding much like a well-honed chamber folk ensemble with Kwon sawing cello on such songs as "Perfect Space," and the title cut, "I and Love and You," that was just featured Monday on a full episode of the CW show, "One Tree Hill."

Crawford said the delicious difficulty now is what all to play live.

They've got more than 90 original songs polished up -- everything from the new hits-to-be like the piano-plinked "Kick Drum Heart" to the imagery-riddled "Slight Figure of Speech" with its hip-hop-influenced lyric-spitting to the Brothers' cache of melancholy-sweet-love-brushed works such as "St. Joseph's" and "If It's the Beaches."

The band used to roam set-list free, but has now started to chalk out a set-list before gigs doing a different blend of songs each night.

"We used to just put down whatever the first four songs would be and that would give us a start and if things go terribly wrong you read the audience and then adjust from there," Crawford said. "We've just recently begun to write up full set-lists that are different every night and that's worked out pretty good. It's still different every night and that's a goal for us but we can guide the songs along a little better and put a few peaks in there and then look at what we did the night before and vary that as necessary. We figure after eight years of doing it one way, it's OK to mix it up a little."

Not surprisingly the band, whose members all have families (Crawford's wife is expecting literally any day now), has been too busy to bask in the glory of releasing such a personally-painted, well-made major label album.

"We don't feel like we have accomplished something but there is this feeling that there is so much more to accomplish and that we haven't scratched the surface yet," Crawford said. "We're so focused on what we are working on today that we're not patting ourselves on the back. That has been our advantage every step of the way. We don't feel like we've done anything yet and that is reflected on this album. We feel that whatever we are working on today is the most important thing."