Song Review: The Avett Brothers - “Country Kid”
The Avett Brothers look back on “Country Kid,” singing of fire ants, Winnie the Pooh, hiding smokes from adults, making out with trailer-park girls and the like.
The second single from the Avett Brothers (May 17) is a formulaic pop song outfitted with banjo and fiddle to provide titular bonafides as the Brothers extoll rural vices and virtues:
Then I grew up and hit the city/but the skyscrapers never get me/I fly above ’em all the time, straight through cloud nine/flowing fast like the Mississippi
“Country Kid” is generic and leans toward bro-country; lacking the elements that make the Avetts’ best work so irresistible. It is, however, much stronger than the preceding “Love of a Girl.”
Grade card: The Avett Brothers - “Country Kid” - C
4/9/24
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Dan Heng's Journey • A Playlist
link to the youtube playlist
made my first honkai star rail playlist yay!! inconsistent in style but accurate in lyrics.
1. Samudrartha — Atharva Mohite Music
tides of the past etched my scars into dragon scales; within its breath, brewing storms. bloodline and roots interwoven 'neath my flesh, forming destiny
2. Flares — The Script
did it hurt so much you thought it was the end?lose your heart but don't know when? and no one cares, there's no one there. but did you see the flares in the sky? were you blinded by the light? did you feel the smoke in your eyes? [...] did you see the sparks filled with hope? you are not alone 'cause someone's out there, sending out flares
3. Voyager — Valerie Broussard
i've been looking for a light in the night; for a sign of life. always waiting for a spark in the dark in the distant sky. god knows, i've been here before. so low but high above it all. voyager; out there touching the stars. passenger; going wherever you are
4. Head Full of Doubt / Road Full of Promises — The Avett Brothers
if you're loved by someone, you're never rejected, decide what to be and go be it. there was a dream and one day i could see it; like a bird in a cage i broke in and demanded that somebody free it. and there was a kid with a head full of doubt...
5. Metamorphosis — MILCK
all these changes feel like death, yet my heart's still pounding in my chest. i'm on the rise, i'm on the rise, i can see my breath. all these changes won't kill me yet. i was born for this... metamorphosis. give it a little more time, a little more time. wet wings, they will dry.
6. Speechless — Scott Shattuck
try to lock me in this cage, i won't just lay me down and die. i will take these broken wings and watch me burn across the sky. hear the echo saying: i won't be silenced; though you wanna see me tremble when you try it. all i know is i won't go speechless.
7. This Time — Heidi Blickenstaff
and all these questions in me are fading away as i suddenly see: i can embrace everything behind me and find the place where I finally find me. now I run with you as a new sun begins to rise. i can see forever; through these endless big blue skies.
8. Cast The Bronze — Raynes
so i don't feed you my heart well enough, but I don't need any part of your love. go tell someone what you wish i would've done. make me bleed if you need to confirm that it's something i can do and I'll paint it red. if you're still unsure let me lie for a day before they formally announce me dead.
9. For Good — Stephen Scaccia
like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes the sun; like a stream that meets a boulder halfway through the wood; who can say if that i've been changed for the better... i do believe i have been changed for the better and because I knew you... i have been changed for good
10. Take the Journey — Honkai Star Rail
the way to celebrate... i'll be waiting till we make it. the day to celebrate... i'll be waiting till we make it. oh, we will see. come with me, take the journey
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The Avett Brothers at KEMBA Live!, Columbus, Ohio, Aug. 20, 2024
The Avett Brothers of 2024 are a band in flux. While the seven-piece touring lineup remains the same, the group is supporting a pop-leaning LP and talks from the stage about working, more than playing, for its audience.
So it went that seven of the nine tracks from 2024’s the Avett Brothers made up nearly one-third of the band’s Aug. 20 outdoor gig on an unseasonably chilly, full-moon night in Columbus, Ohio, at a pretty much sold-out KEMBA Live! The musicians were more emotive vocally and physically than in the past, infusing new songs like “Never Apart (w/Vocal Prelude)” and “Orion’s Belt” with choreographed moves and making what was once organic joy feel contrived.
During these and other new numbers, Seth and Scott Avett struggled to align their harmonies and Joe Kwon’s cello and Tania Elizabeth’s violin were more adult-contemporary orchestral than down-home Americana as Scott Avett kneeled and slapped hands with audience members and Seth Avett struck rock-star poses under a backdrop of gold praying hands, a disco ball and kaleidoscopic lights.
It was nearly 30 minutes into the two-hour show when flashes of yesterday’s Avetts appeared, when the septet lit into Doc Watson’s instrumental “Black Mountain Rag” and Seth Avett’s electric guitar added a rock element to his bandmates’ country drive.
Scott Avett performed “Murder in the City” solo and acoustic and the Avett brothers and bassist Bob Crawford got folksy around one mic on “I Wish I Was.” Elizabeth continued the unplugged theme with her rambunctious solo spot pairing the instrumental “Le Reel Du Pendu” with the vocal-and-fiddle “Les Barres De La Prison” and earning a raucous response from the audience, a large number of whom began streaming out about halfway through the gig.
The vast majority who stuck around as space opened up in the lawn sang lovingly to the balladic “I and Love and You” and lustily to “Kick Drum Heart.”
The four-song encore continued the contours of the main set, beginning with the mindlessness of Toby Keith’s “As Good as I Once Was” by the Avetts/Crawford trio and ending, as virtually every Avetts show does, with the riveting, deeply thoughtful “No Hard Feelings” by the full band.
But even this magical song - which typically leaves Sound Bites in tears - produced only a lump in the throat, summing up an atypically tepid evening with the Avett Brothers.
Grade card: The Avett Brothers at KEMBA Live! - 8/20/24 - C+
8/21/24
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