Winston-Salem Journal

Avetts kept to their game plan, and it worked

-- Ed Bumgardner

Published: July 17, 2008

Find fame one fan at a time. Keep the music genuine. A simple plan for success.

That was the plan that Dolph Ramseur, an independent record-label owner and band manager from Concord, presented to his first full-time clients, The Avett Brothers, an odd bluegrass-rooted band, also from Concord.

"I was struck by the band and its integrity the first time I saw them," Ramseur said.

"After we talked, we found we believed in and wanted the same thing. We didn't care if we sold one album as long as the songs were right and true. We had a bond. I never signed a contract with the band.

"From day one, all we worked on was a handshake."

That was in 2002. The Avetts -- brothers Seth and Scott Avett and Bob Crawford -- have since toured constantly, putting out several recordings for Ramseur Records. The band steadfastly stuck to the Ramseur plan as it refined its sound to fuse elements of bluegrass, punk, pop and rock into a rootsy whole that's startlingly singular and boiling with the vitality of youth.

Playing every nook and cranny sparked a viral word-of-mouth message that spread from coast to coast -- the Avett Brothers was one of the best live bands in the land.

The buzz around this unlikely but undeniably energetic, charismatic and unassuming band slowly built to a deafening level. No advertising. No videos. Find fame, one fan at a time.

"We worked it like a military campaign -- first conquer North Carolina, then Virginia, then Tennessee, and so on," Ramseur, 39, said. "We worked on a very low budget, and we were soon making money and progress. We just connected the dots and followed the plan."

It worked.

Last Monday, the Avett Brothers announced that the group had left Ramseur Records and signed with American/Columbia Records. The signing followed a two-year blur of sold-out shows, national music-magazine covers and a mountain of fawning press.

The band's success was such that many people looked to the Avetts as a portent of change, the band that would buck convention, shun the snake-oil salesmen and sell-your-soul contracts of the major record labels to help usher in a new, do-it-yourself business model.

"We have been getting offers for the last several years," said Ramseur, who remains the band's manager. "But it wasn't until we talked with (producer/executive) Rick Rubin at American/Columbia, that we heard anybody talk about the band in musical terms. This wasn't American Idol. Rick was interested in the songs -- not the image or the marketing. He is all about building a legacy, and taking the music to the next level. There was no compromise. It was a good fit for the band, which is already working with Rick on its next album."

Ramseur will continue to manage the Avetts while overseeing the stable of acts that he manages and/or has signed to Ramseur Records. Of these, at least two increasingly popular bands -- the everybodyfields and Bombadil -- show strong signs of following the Avetts to the next level.

Ramseur said he doesn't have the Midas touch. He just knows what he likes. He's interested in acts that are gifted but different. He isn't interested in cookie-cutter success. It's his job to sell his tastes, and each band's vision, to the public. It's an extension of his love for music.

"Back in 1992-94, I was the tennis director for the City of Winston-Salem, over at Hanes Park, and I started listening to a lot of R.E.M., and watching how they were working. I became increasingly involved and fascinated with music, something that was helped by (the late) Bill Clarke, who ran a store in Winston named Rave On Records," Ramseur said. "The funny thing is that by the time people told me about the Avetts, I was initially hesitant, because, for me, a little bluegrass goes a long, long way.

"But it was really Bill, who, through introducing me to an album I loved by a guy named Sammy Walker, whom I befriended and learned from, that I came to the place where I got involved with the Avetts. So, thanks, Bill."

Life for the Avetts will intensify. The band's well-deserved debut for American/Columbia is very likely to be the biggest-selling album in history by a North Carolina band. Nothing would make Ramseur prouder.

"I have always thought North Carolina is one of the most fertile musical breeding grounds in the country -- every type of music has been produced here," he said. "To be part of this musical legacy, and to draw more attention to bands in this state, would make me happy."