"heavy sadness of Townes Van Zandt, the light pop concision of Buddy Holly, the tuneful jangle of the Beatles, the raw energy of the Ramones." San Francisco Chronicle

This is a quote from the San Francisco Chronicle that describes the band The Avett Brothers almost perfectly. If anything could be added to the quote, it would have to be how great of lyricists that Seth Avett, Scott Avett, and Bob Crawford are. Since 2002’s Country Was The Avett Brothers have started with a younger, shallower, more puppy love meaning behind their songs. As they started recording more and matured their sound, they also matured their songwriting to a deeper sense of love and life as shown on 2007’s Emotionalism and 2009’s I and Love and You. With the release of their album The Carpenter earlier this year, they have finally found that third level of love above all other love, familial love. These very different but connected types of love are shown throughout many of their songs throughout their career.

Their recordings show the puppy love through lighter and happier lyrics and a more upbeat melody to accompany those lyrics. In “Jenny and the Summer Day” off of the abum County Was, they write “I know that you’re afraid to swim/ So I’ll stay in the shallow end.” Those lyrics give the impression that he is ready to make sacrifices in order for the relationship to work, but it’s not yet deep enough to him to give up anything serious. It’s also shown later in the song when he writes “I know that won’t buy anything/ But I will steal you anything.” Later in their music making career, a song from the album Four Thieves Gone: The Robbinsville Sessions named “A Lover Like You” shows a little more commitment to the relationship. It shows when they sing “She may be all on my case/ Want to kiss me on my face/ Put my hands on her waist/ Take me back to her place/ I would happily follow/ But not when I have a lover like you.” They are finally starting to realize that their lover is worth more than a fleeting night of fun. They also show that the love is now a two-way street when they sing earlier in the song “Now it don't take that much thought/ Not with all the love you've got/ And you give it to me free/ Some might take that for granted but certainly not me/ No not when I have a lover like you.” While on tour in support of this album, The Avett Brothers released The Gleam which contained a song called “If It’s the Beaches.” This song had begun to realize even more that big sacrifices need to be made in order for a relationship to work. The song is a slower song with a lot more heart behind with the first verse ending with the lyrics “I will rearrange my plans and change for you” showing that he is ready to make the hard choices for the one he loves. He also shows the level of commitment has risen when he sings “A guarantee and not a promise/ That I'll never let your love slip from my hands.”

Following the growth of those songs about love, The Avett Brothers reach a stage where the love is now a more mature love not so much focused on what they are doing than the fact that they get to do it with that special someone. This is especially evident in the song “St. Josephs” off of The Second Gleam. The couple in the song is about to get married and are trying to find a place to get married. While at one of the locations, he turns to his fiancé and sings “If it’s place or any other/ It’s not where I am it’s who I’m with” showing that he doesn’t care where it is, as long as they get married. Another song called “The Ballad of Love and Hate” from Emotionalism tells a story about love and hate as a couple split from a vacation. Its shows love as the one coming back from the vacation and being sorry she was gone so long and can’t wait to be back as shown through a letter. Once hate gets the letter, he throws it aside and goes about his day like any other, deciding to get drunk and stay out late even though he knows love is waiting for him back home. The story ends here and shows how the love has grown and matured “Hate stumbles forward and leans in the door. /Weary head hung down, eyes to the floor. /He says "Love, I'm sorry", and she says, "What for?/ I'm yours and that's it, Whatever./ I should not have been gone for so long./ I'm your's and that's it, forever." That also shows that love has to also be forgiving to work. Also, when love reaches that level there is a certain level of understanding between the two people involved in the relationship. In the song “January Wedding” from I and Love and You they sing “She's talkin' to me with her voice/ Down so low I barely hear her/ But I know what she's sayin'/ I understand because my heart and hers are the same/ And in January we're gettin' married” which shows exactly that point.

With the recent release of The Carpenter they have started to realize the strongest bond of love, which is between family members. They hinted at it in the song “Murder in the City” from The Second Gleam. In this song they first show it when they sing “A tear fell from my father's eyes/ I wondered what my dad would say /He said I love you /And I'm proud of you both /in so many different ways.” Later in the song he sings “Make sure my sister knows I loved her/Make sure my mother knows the same /Always remember, there was nothing worth sharing /Like the love that let us share our name” showing more familial love. Since the song has been released, they have evolved the lyrics as they began their new families so now the last line says “Make sure my daughter knows I loved her/ Make sure her mother knows the same.” On their new album there is a song called “A Fathers First Spring”, which is about the birth of Scott Avett’s daughter. He shows that this level of love is above others by singing “The realest thing I ever felt/ Was the blood on the floor and the love in your yell./ I was a child before/ The day that I met Eleanor.” Later he describes how much he loves his daughter by saying “My heart is now ruined for the rest of all times/ There's no part of it left to give.” In “Through My Prayers” it shows the strong love for family even after the loved one has passed away. He first sings “And now my only chance/ To talk to you is through my prayers/ I wanted to tell you I cared” showing he still wants to let her know he loves her. Later in the song he reveals how deep the love is by singing “Every night after and every day since/ I find myself crying when the memory hits/ Sometimes it knocks me down, sometimes I can just put it away.”