Indy Exclusive with Poster. Release date 9/18
While The Avett Brothers lineup typically consists of a robust group of players including fiddler Tania Elizabeth and cellist Joe Kwon, The Third Gleam finds Scott and Seth Avett playing in a paired-down trio with longtime bassist Bob Crawford. This lineup more closely resembles the band in its early days, when Scott, Seth and Bob played their bombastic country-rock songs in grimey venues across the Southeast. If you’ve spent any time watching old Avett sets, you’ll know they were akin to a punk show.
But The Third Gleam is not a record of punk songs (like those Scott and Seth might’ve played in their first band in the early 2000s, a punk rock group called Nemo) or country-rock rambles. These eight songs are simple folk ditties dealing with themes The Avett Brothers have returned to again and again: spirituality, family and romantic tenderness. They also focus on living simply, and it just so happens that the sonic elements are simple, too, unlike their last three or four albums which, with help from Rubin, implement an array of pop production elements to varying degrees of success. On The Third Gleam, The Avett Brothers take a step back from all that gloss and shine and just focus on the songwriting, the harmonies and the dynamic between three musicians in a room. Hearing The Third Gleam is like stepping into a sunny, peaceful clearing after hours of running through the woods.
—Paste Magazine