Sett Avett Solo Albums Reissued

Longtime Avett Brothers-related collectibles finally see a wide release.

By Blurt Staff

Ramseur Records will re-release all of Seth Avett's solo albums - originally released under the moniker Timothy Seth Avett as Darling - this week in both physical format and digitally via iTunes. Considered rarities by Avett Brothers fans (only a few hundred copies were pressed up), the timing is apt, considering that 2009 marked a watershed year for the Avetts, whose Rick Rubin-produced I and Love and You has been turning up on many a year-end best-of list (including BLURT's).

Avett released a statement explaining the genesis of the recording projects:

"In the year 2001, at twenty-one years of age, I recorded an album entitled To Make the World Quiet. The inspiration for the piece was urgent and impatient.  There was no managerial or label involvement. There was no funding. Without any consideration towards who (if anyone) would hear the result of this outing, I happily executed each aspect of the process, including all writing, performance of each instrument, engineering and modest production.  The following year, I again, by the same process was obliged to record an album.  Killing the Headlamps was the realization of this second venture as ‘Darling'.  Both albums were made on a 4-track cassette recorder. I initially mixed them both on a low-fidelity home stereo in my kitchen (to yet another cassette).  I spent a perhaps unhealthy amount of time with a ruler, an X-acto knife, and a real-time dual-deck cd duplicator, hand-assembling these two albums (along with the first couple thousand units of the first official Avett Brothers recording Country Was).  

"Until New Years Eve 2010, the only physical copies of these records laid in the hands of maybe a few hundred people that I sold them to personally.  I have been honored by the continued interest in these early works as expressed by those who have inquired about them at Avett performances.  It is this kind inquiry that has inspired me again; this time to make them readily available through a proper duplication and ordering process." 

Starting on December the 30th in Knoxville, TN, the first two ‘Darling' records (in addition to The Mourning, The Silver, The Bell), will be available at each Avett Brothers performance through January the 3rd.  From then on, all three albums can be obtained from the website (www.timothysethavettasdarling.com) by download or through a mail-order process for the actual physical copies.  They will be available on iTunes as well, starting December 29th.

In addition, a set of  5 videos have been created by Crackerfarm to coincide not only with the newfound availability of these recordings, but with the New Year as well. Each video is a one-camera/one-angle performance of a song from one of the 3 ‘Darling' records.  These visual pieces are defined by their simplicity, as there has been no editing or audio overdubbing of any kind.

Starting today, December 28^th two of these videos have been posted to Avett's site - and for the next three weeks, a new video will be posted on Monday morning at ten o'clock (EST) on the Darling website [http://www.timothysethavettasdarling.com/videos].