The Avett Brothers have an intimate relationship with Father Time.

Sure, it sounds like an odd statement, but bassist/vocalist Bob Crawford is pretty convincing when he mentions that the mythical figure appears on Live, Vol. Four.

“We’ve got a good relationship with Father Time, which is really special and exciting,” Crawford says of the album that was released December 18, 2015.

“We always like for him to do a song with us. When you’re dealing with Father Time, you really have to choose the right song.”

Mystery revealed: Father Time is really Valient Himself, of the Southern heavy metal band Valient Thorr. Recorded in Raleigh, North Carolina, on December 31, 2014, Live, Vol. Four features 14 tracks, including four covers and two unreleased songs.

Crawford says, besides reining in Father Time for a NYE show, preparation is minimal for a live CD. Same goes for the band’s nerves.

“I really don’t sense that,” he says about the anxiety level of The Avett Brothers before a NYE gig.

“Once the preparation for how many balloons are we going to have, what time do you shoot off the confetti canon, when do you drop a certain banner [things cool down],” he says. “I would think the prep is more on our crew than us; the guys who have to pull off the lights and the sounds. There’s more pressure on them.”

Crawford and the rest of The Avett Brothers—Scott Avett on vocals/banjo/kick drums; Seth Avett, vocals/ guitars/high hat; keyboardist Paul Defiglia; violinist Tania Elizabeth; cellist Joe Kwon and drummer Mike Marsh—return to Phoenix to play the McDowell Mountain Music Festival on Sunday, March 13. Crawford says The Avett Brothers will play a few new tracks from an album that’s due out in the summer, perhaps. But that’s all he’ll say.

“The only thing I’ll say about it is we, for the first time, recorded with a seven-piece band,” he says. “We’ve never done that before. That alone will make it unique.”

He’s chattier about The Avett Brothers’ last album, 2013’s Magpie and the Dandelion, as well as its predecessor, 2012’s The Carpenter.

“That was such a weird time period,” Crawford says. “They were both recorded in the same window of time.

“We put out The Carpenter and that got a lot more behind it than Magpie ever did. We don’t bury our heads in the sand and we’re not completely aloof as to how something is perceived or how successful it is.”

That’s not something on which Crawford or his bandmates focus.

“For us, it’s the creation of the record that’s the memorable point,” he says. “Once it’s released, however, how well it does or does not do is technically out of our hands.

“I will say this about our two records. We recorded all of these songs and when we released The Carpenter, we didn’t know what was going to happen to the rest of them songs.

“Six, seven, eight months went by and Rick [Rubin, producer] started playing with the tracks we had remaining.”

He and The Avett Brothers found that the songs could work as a standalone collection.

“It was amazing how thematically different Magpie is from The Carpenter,” Crawford explains. “So in that respect, I’m really proud of Magpie. It was compiled and released so far away from the time it was recorded that it really gave us, well, me, the opportunity to be disassociated from it and be distant from it.

“I remember listening to it before it came out. I would listen to it like I wasn’t in the band. There was something about that distance that made it appealing in the songs and the vibe of the record.”

Magpie and The Carpenter aside, Crawford is looking forward to playing his new songs at the McDowell Mountain Music Festival.

“It’ll be our third show of the year,” he says. “Hopefully we remember how to play the songs. We’re looking forward to getting back out there. We’ve been off since November. It’s time to get back to work.”

MCDOWELL MOUNTAIN MUSIC FESTIVAL

Margaret T. Hance Park, 1202 N. Third Street, Phoenix, mmmf.com, Friday, March 11 through Sunday, March 13, times vary, $70-$600