The Avett Brothers; Jessica Lea Mayfield

The plaintive harmonies of North Carolina's Avetts weave tales of nearly unmitigated woe against an unsettling backdrop of creaky folk and country washed through with a punky-pop ethos. The trio's earnest delivery and plucky banjo etch quirky, Southern gothic-draped songs that blithely tackle shame, paranoia, death, lies, abandonment, and hate, and that's just within the first half of the Avett's latest album, Emotionalism (Ramseur). It's the stuff lurking in the weeds that makes the Avetts so interesting: the ambiguity inherent in lyrics like "I don't wanna live, but I sure don't wanna die," the thrash-folk that unexpectedly erupts at the end of "Pretty Girl from Chile." Opening will be Jessica Lea Mayfield, an 18-year-old Kent, Ohio, based singer/songwriter who until recently went by the name Chittlin. She and her three-piece band, including brother David on bass, play a sly blend of country, bluegrass, and folk. On her recently issued EP White Lies, Mayfield's knowingly slurred vocal style suggests deeper roots in Appalachia and a worldliness beyond her teen years. 18+.
Thu., May 8, 9 p.m., 2008