Scott and Seth Avett started out in loud rock bands in Concord, North Carolina, but the music that mattered happened after the shows, in late-night acoustic sessions they called Nemo Downstairs. This episode traces how those quiet songs became The Avett Brothers, from Country Was with bassist Bob Crawford in 2001 through A Carolina Jubilee, Mignonette and the lake house recording of Four Thieves Gone.

We follow the Rick Rubin signing and I and Love and You, the Gleam EPs that kept them grounded, Bob Crawford's return to the stage at the 2011 Grammys after his daughter's brain tumor diagnosis, the Judd Apatow HBO documentary May It Last, the outward turn of Closer Than Together, the Broadway musical Swept Away, a 2024 self-titled album, and a planned late-2025 collaboration with Mike Patton.

• Why stripping away distortion forced sh ...