The Avett Brothers: The most 'Carolinian' of bands?

North Carolina can lay claim to its fair share of noteworthy musicians over the years. Just off the top of my head I can think of James Taylor, Doc Watson, Randy Travis, Ryan Adams, Tori Amos, Ben Folds, The Connells, Petey Pablo, Corrossion of Conformity, and a slew of American Idols or almost-Idols. Not too bad, and I'm sure I'm missing some other important ones.

But perhaps no artist of note "name drops" North Carolina as much as Concord's The Avett Brothers. Heck, the band has albums titled A Carolina Jubilee and The Robbinsville Sessions.

Among their many songs are a series of songs about "pretty girls" from such places as Raleigh, Matthews and even Locust. They sing about "40 East," and "Greenville Town." They even mention relaxing on the shores of Lake Junaluska.

This trio -- made up of brothers Seth & Scott Avett along with Bob Crawford -- were recently name-dropped themselves by "Marley & Me" author John Grogan in Time. "It is impossible not to grin while listening to this infectiously upbeat blend of folk, rock and bluegrass, all played on acoustic instruments and with whimsical, witty lyrics to boot," wrote Grogan.

(Emotionalism cover and Ryan Adams photo from Wikipedia.com)

Revisit the golden days of N.C. rock with Comboland Radio

Been humming an old dBs song but can't think of where to hear it? Or perhaps you've been discussing how great the Pressure Boys were and waxing nostalgiac? Or maybe you just really are in the mood for some Arrogance.

Comboland Radio is the place for you.

"Comboland" was a phrase used to describe the music "coming out of the Carolinas in the middle ‘80’s,"writes Comboland creator Michael Smith on his website. "There were so many great bands that should have got the big record deal and lots of radio airplay. I can’t do much about those big record deals but with Comboland Radio I can give those artists and the ones that followed an entire radio station! Here it is…. Comboland Radio! All day every day you can listen to this great music, much of it out of print and unavailable anywhere else!!"

Comboland offers R.E.M., The Connells, Dillon Fence, Corrosion of Conformity, Cry of Love, Mitch Easter, Johnny Quest and so many more.

"The idea to create Comboland is an example of something good coming from something bad," wrote Metro Magazine.

“The genesis of the idea is the death of David Enloe,” Smith explained during our phone chat. “He was the lead guitarist and one of the founding members of The Fabulous Knobs, along with Terry Anderson, Debra DeMilo and Jack Cornell. David and Terry met, I think, in junior high school. Terry may correct me on this, but I do know they’d been together for a long, long time. I didn’t know them well back in the day. I knew them a little. I did a lot of road case pushing for local bands so I could go see them without paying a cover.

Enloe passed away in November 2007. David Menconi wrote a fine obituary for Enloe, which is available online: www.newsobserver.com/105/story/796627.html. There’s also a great tribute to Enloe on MySpace:
http://profile.myspace.com/index .cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid
=288585688.

Smith was not aware of Enloe’s illness, however, so when the news of his death reached him, it set him to thinking.

“When I heard about David’s passing, I moped around for a while thinking how horrible it was, and then I went to the storage facility where I keep all my vinyl records and packed up all my Triangle-area bands and brought it home,” he recalled. “I started listening to it, just sort of reminiscing, and it hit me that this stuff was still really good. It was a shame that these bands didn’t make it big-time.

“I decided it was time to start digitizing all this music,” he said. “Once I’d digitized it, then I had to play it around the house a little bit, so I made the play list and stuck it in Winamp and played it through the stereo system. I have a little program that will actually seg the songs, similar to what you have on a radio station. “Well, the songs sounded great, so I thought I’d stick in some newer stuff by Don Dixon. Then I downloaded some newer stuff and started experimenting. All this music sounded really good together, so I decided to make a radio station out of it.”

(CD images from Comboland's website)