FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – July 14, 2020 – Three-time GRAMMY Award-nominees The Avett Brothers are set to play their first live show in six months with a drive-in concert at the legendary Charlotte Motor Speedway on August 29. The North Carolina Music Hall of Fame inductees will celebrate the release of their eagerly-awaited new album The Third Gleam, out August 28 on American Recordings through Loma Vista Recordings, with fans socially distanced in their cars. The band will perform live on the backstretch of the racing surface with the stage broadcast on the speedway’s 16,000 square-foot television screen, one of the largest screens in the world, offering a once-in-a-lifetime fan experience. Tickets will be sold per car and will be available for pre-sale on Thursday, July 16, with tickets opening up to the general public on Friday, July 17. Ticket-holders will be eligible to purchase a limited-edition vinyl of The Third Gleam to commemorate this special homecoming show. For tickets and more information, visit avettbrothersdrivein.com.

Ahead of the live show, fans can watch the band in concert with a preview of The Avett Brothers At Red Rocks, streaming exclusively on PBS.org here. Recorded last July during The Avett Brothers’ 25th appearance at the iconic venue, the preview features “Live and Die,” “Down with the Shine,” “High Steppin’,” and “Head Full of Doubt.” The full-length program will be available to PBS Stations beginning on August 29.

The Third Gleam is the third installment in The Avett Brothers’ ongoing Gleam series, twelve years in the making, and marks a return to the band’s roots. Throughout the eight songs on the album, the band shares their personal experiences and perspectives on universal themes of injustice, isolation, and mortality, as well as love, redemption, and faith that are especially relevant right now. Scott and Seth Avett state, “sharing it now is about what sharing art is always about: another chance that we may partake in connecting with our brothers and sisters of this world, and hopefully joining you in noticing a speck of light gleaming in what appears to be a relatively long and dark night” (watch Scott and Seth’s full statement here). The band introduced The Third Gleam last week with lead single “Victory,” a haunting battle against mental darkness, with Consequence of Sound observing, “although the entirety of The Third Gleam was written pre-coronavirus, a track like this can easily be applied to the present day, when hope is sometimes quite hard to come by.” Paste pronounces it a “stripped-down folk song, whose harmonies and gentle guitar certainly harken back to The Avett Brothers’ early material,” continuing, “if ‘Victory’ is any indication of what’s to come, The Third Gleam could be some of their best work in years.”

Pre-order The Third Gleamhere.

Casey Carter

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