Just got an email confirming the win. Get to meet the guys before their set at ACL. My wife and I are stoked. I had to write what their music meant to me.

This is what I said, It is kind of cheesy, but true:

The first time I saw the Avett Brothers play, it was for a small festival in Wilmington, NC called Feelgood Fest. This was back in 03, I believe. They walked out on stage in their dapper suits and shredded the place to bits. Nothing was left of the stage. The crowd was just one giant ball of energy. As time passed, the Avett Brothers continued to frequent Wilmington. But also as time passed, we began chasing them down on the road. There was Charlotte, Greenville, Ashville, Raleigh and all points in between. I was lucky to be invited to a wedding back in their hometown of Concord, for a friend. That was a real treat. Only about forty people their. We were all drinking out of the spiked punch bowl that night. So now it is 2009 and grad school/work has led me far from my North Carolina home to the deep and dirty South of Louisiana. These past few years my (now) wife and I have been absent from the Avett’s live shows. Which this fact is only due to location. Last year I proposed to my wife at ACL during Jenny Lewis; therefore, this year was a must. Luckily, when the line-up was announced, the band that created so much energy and love for us in NC, the band that plays through our house, the band that we both ask our new friends here in Louisiana, “Hey you gotta check this band out. They will blow your mind,” are playing Friday at ACL. It is moments like these that remind us we are alive. Whether back at the Soapbox in Wilmington, NC or on the stage in the hot sun of Austin, TX the Avett Brothers remind us all that we are alive. Energy is a ball that is continually bounced back and forth between the stage and the crowd. IF there were no Avett Brothers, yes, life would still go on, but thank god they are here, helping us all get through all the points in between.

happy trails,
wm