The Avett Brothers

The groups beginnings can be traced back to the two brothers younger days, when they merged the separate bands they had formed at college and school to perform under the moniker “Nemo”. Whilst playing in the rock influenced Nemo and releasing three albums with them, the brothers started a side project focusing on acoustic music, eventually writing their first folk EP, the eponymous “Avett Bros.”, in 2000.

After the disbanding of Nemo, the Avetts, alongside new members Kwon and Crawford, decided to push on with their new band, and wrote and released their debut album “Country Was” in 2002, before embarking on their first tour together in the same year.

They were shortly picked up by local record label, Ramseur Records, and released their follow up album a year later, “A Carolina Jubilee”. This was the first glimpse of the Avett Brothers’ ability to blend their folk style with other genres, such as punk, pop and honky tonk.

The group released a further three studio albums with Ramseur between 2004 and 2007, before collaborating with legendary producer Rick Rubin, and subsequently signing with his American Recordings label.

It was with Rubin that the band really broke through into the mainstream, with their sixth effort, “I Love You and Love You” reaching number 16 in the US charts. The album was well received by critics, who appreciated their more polished sound, and after touring for a few years the band moved on to capitalise on their newfound fame, releasing the even more successful “The Carpenter” and “Magpie and the Dandelion” in 2012 and 2013.

As well as touring, the band has performed at the Grammy Awards and TV shows such as “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” and their music has also been used as the soundtrack for many different movies such as “This is 40” and “Friday Night Lights”.

Laura and Lydia Rogers were born into a very musical family. The Rogers sisters had already seen one family band formed in the form of their grandfather and great uncles’ band The Happy Valley Boys. However, though both of them were singing from an early age either in church or with their family, nobody expected them to form a band together. If anything, Lydia was going to be the one with a career in music, while Laura left home after high school to pursue a career in business at the Middle Tennessee State University. However, life would have a plan of its own, as it do often does, and as Laura’s degree went on, she found herself wanting to sing professionally more and more.

It got to the point that Laura shipped herself up to Nashville, Tennessee to audition for a new singing group that Lydia was trying to make the cut for as well. It was a completely spur the moment idea, and it was just as well that she did, since Lydia got stuck in traffic and couldn’t make it in the end. Laura stunned the executives forming the group with her audition and when they asked her back, she brought along Lydia for the audition as well. When they heard the sisters sing together in harmony they formed the group right there and then. Taking the name The Secret Sisters, Lydia and Laura were flown to Los Angeles, California to record some demos.

These were shopped around to a number of record companies, but the fledgling group found their most fervent admirer in the form of production legend T Bone Burnett. He loved what he heard so much that he created an entirely new imprint of Universal Republic Records called Beladroit just to release their records. Their self-titled debut album came out in October 2010 and since then; they’ve continued to work with Burnett while also collaborating with Jack White for a single release on his Third Man Records label. The band released their second album “Put Your Needle Down” in 2014 and remains one of the most exciting country artists around right now. For that reason, they come highly recommended.