# Scott Avett
**Scott Avett** (full name Scott Yancey Avett, born 1976 in [Cheyenne, Wyoming](https://www.edgepedia.org/cheyenne-wyoming)) is an American singer, songwriter, banjo player, and visual artist, best known as a founding member, lead vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist of the folk-rock band [The Avett Brothers](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-avett-brothers)[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5424599/bio/) • [2](https://apnews.com/article/fa373c914f03f76b024d9b2d5b6e6fe9). Alongside his younger brother [Seth Avett](https://www.edgepedia.org/seth-avett), he has led the Concord, North Carolina-based band since 2000, and he maintains a parallel career as a painter and printmaker whose work has been shown at the North Carolina Museum of Art[3](https://hextongallery.com/usr/library/documents/main/scott-avett-bio-cv-1-.pdf).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | 1976, Cheyenne, Wyoming; raised in Concord, North Carolina[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5424599/bio/) • [4](https://www.theavettbrothers.com/band) |
| Role in the band | Lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist (banjo, guitar, piano, ukulele); co-founded The Avett Brothers with Seth Avett in 2000[2](https://apnews.com/article/fa373c914f03f76b024d9b2d5b6e6fe9) • [5](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-avett-brothers-mn0000755152) |
| Education | Communications degree, East Carolina University, 1999; BFA in studio art, 2000[6](https://www.scottavett.com/) |
| Visual art | Working artist since 2000; first museum exhibition, *Scott Avett: INVISIBLE*, opened October 2019 at the North Carolina Museum of Art[3](https://hextongallery.com/usr/library/documents/main/scott-avett-bio-cv-1-.pdf) |
| Theater | The Avett Brothers' 2004 album *Mignonette* became the basis of the Broadway musical *Swept Away*, with a story by John Logan[2](https://apnews.com/article/fa373c914f03f76b024d9b2d5b6e6fe9) • [21](https://music.apple.com/us/album/mignonette/252534569) |
| Family | Married to Sarah Avett since 2003; father of three children[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5424599/bio/) • [6](https://www.scottavett.com/) |
## Early life and education
Scott Avett was born in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and raised with his brother Seth and sister Bonnie in [Concord, North Carolina](https://www.edgepedia.org/concord-north-carolina), where his parents, Jim and Susie Avett, kept a small hobby farm on more than 60 acres in [Cabarrus County](https://www.edgepedia.org/cabarrus-county)[4](https://www.theavettbrothers.com/band) • [7](https://www.ourstate.com/the-avett-brothers/). His father worked as a welder and his mother as a reading teacher, and the household was deliberately musical: the brothers took piano, guitar, and banjo lessons from members of the Concord-based Mullis family, listened to gospel at church and bluegrass at home, and absorbed rock acts such as [Black Sabbath](https://www.edgepedia.org/black-sabbath), Soundgarden, and Nirvana[6](https://www.scottavett.com/) • [4](https://www.theavettbrothers.com/band) • [7](https://www.ourstate.com/the-avett-brothers/).
Scott has described his childhood listening in specific terms: "Growing up, I sat in our house with an eight-track tape player, listening to Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and Willie and Waylon"[8](https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/10/hot-tracks-avett-brothers). Both brothers studied visual arts in college and played in noisy, rowdy heavy-metal bands before turning to acoustic music[7](https://www.ourstate.com/the-avett-brothers/).
At [East Carolina University](https://www.edgepedia.org/east-carolina-university) in Greenville, Avett first pursued art, then shifted to a communications degree with a concentration in radio broadcasting performance, which he received in 1999 before returning to finish a BFA in studio art in 2000[6](https://www.scottavett.com/) • [9](https://www.wfae.org/arts-culture/2022-10-14/scott-avett-on-another-side-of-his-creativity). After graduating, the painter Leland Wallin convinced him to pursue visual art seriously, and he has painted and made prints continuously since[6](https://www.scottavett.com/).
## The Avett Brothers
Before the folk band, Scott and Seth played together in Nemo, a rock band that gigged regularly in [Greenville, North Carolina](https://www.edgepedia.org/greenville-north-carolina)[5](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-avett-brothers-mn0000755152). Around the turn of the millennium the brothers began writing guitar- and banjo-based songs and performing them in coffee shops and bars around Concord and Charlotte; a 2000 side-project recording, *The Back Door Project*, was renamed The Avett Brothers with the release of a self-titled album that same year[4](https://www.theavettbrothers.com/band) • [5](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-avett-brothers-mn0000755152). Bassist Bob Crawford joined soon afterward, and cellist Joe Kwon later rounded out the core group[10](https://archives.nd.edu/Observer/2010-03-02_v44_104.pdf).
__Scott plays banjo at the center of the live show__, often kicking a bass drum while playing, with Seth on guitar and the two trading lead vocals and close harmonies[11](https://relix.com/features/detail/the-avett-brothers-of-music-and-men) • [12](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/at-the-patriot-center-the-avett-brothers-try-to-straddle-two-very-different-worlds/2014/03/02/269647da-a177-11e3-878c-65222df220eb_story.html). Critics have described the band's sound as folk and bluegrass roots carried by a rock-and-roll energy, built on constant touring rather than label promotion[5](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-avett-brothers-mn0000755152) • [13](https://americanahighways.org/2024/05/15/review-the-avett-brothers-self-titled/amp/).
Producer [Rick Rubin](https://www.edgepedia.org/rick-rubin) became central to the band's later career. He produced *I and Love and You* (2009), the major-label debut that brought the band a national audience, and *The Carpenter* (2012), which earned the band its first Grammy nomination, for best [Americana](https://www.edgepedia.org/americana) album[14](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/13478-i-and-love-and-you/) • [15](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/00s/2016/Billboard-2016-07-02-%28Triple-Issue%29.pdf). *True Sadness* (2016) reached a career-high number three on the album chart, and the Rubin-produced self-titled album *The Avett Brothers* followed in 2024[5](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-avett-brothers-mn0000755152).
## Songwriting
Scott writes many of the band's songs, and listeners and reviewers often distinguish the brothers' voices: Seth has noted that "when certain people hear the first line of a song, they can tell whether it's mine or Scott's"[16](https://magnetmagazine.com/2007/05/15/the-avett-brothers-race-for-the-prize/). His songs tend toward confessional, narrative material. "Murder in the City," a ballad about family, is one of the band's most intimate staples[12](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/at-the-patriot-center-the-avett-brothers-try-to-straddle-two-very-different-worlds/2014/03/02/269647da-a177-11e3-878c-65222df220eb_story.html), and "Famous Flower of Manhattan" was written about the musician [Regina Spektor](https://www.edgepedia.org/regina-spektor)[17](https://afmag.net/people/82323/scott-avett). Family life also enters the writing directly; he has said the push-pull between career and parenting is reflected in verses of the song "Magpie"[18](https://americansongwriter.com/2013/11/avett-brothers-together-life/).
The band's narrative-driven, character-based songwriting translated naturally to the stage. The Avett Brothers' 2004 concept album *Mignonette*, based on a book about men adrift for days in the middle of the ocean, became the basis of the Broadway musical *[Swept Away](https://www.edgepedia.org/swept-away-musical)*, with the songs wedded to a story by John Logan and one new song, "Lord Lay Your Hand On My Shoulder," written specifically for the show[2](https://apnews.com/article/fa373c914f03f76b024d9b2d5b6e6fe9) • [21](https://music.apple.com/us/album/mignonette/252534569).
## Visual art
Painting and printmaking are Avett's other primary discipline, and by his own account the older one: he went to college for art first, and music came second[9](https://www.wfae.org/arts-culture/2022-10-14/scott-avett-on-another-side-of-his-creativity). His work is largely figurative, focused on spirituality and familial and interpersonal relationships, and draws on his family's life on North Carolina farmland[6](https://www.scottavett.com/) • [3](https://hextongallery.com/usr/library/documents/main/scott-avett-bio-cv-1-.pdf). He has cited a wide range of influences, including the painters [Alex Katz](https://www.edgepedia.org/alex-katz), Malcolm Morley, Alice Neel, Leland Wallin, and [Caravaggio](https://www.edgepedia.org/caravaggio), and the writers [Gustave Flaubert](https://www.edgepedia.org/gustave-flaubert) and Leo Tolstoy[19](https://www.denvergazette.com/2024/07/13/scott-avetts-artwork-is-his-real-salvation-song-john-moore-554a86f4-416c-11ef-bd02-af4f5799e083/).
For most of two decades his art-making remained a largely solitary pursuit, produced in a farmhouse studio without exhibition deadlines, while his public life was musical[3](https://hextongallery.com/usr/library/documents/main/scott-avett-bio-cv-1-.pdf). That changed with his first museum exhibition, *Scott Avett: INVISIBLE*, which opened at the North Carolina Museum of Art in October 2019 and surveyed twenty years of work across painting, printmaking, and sculptural objects, accompanied by a 210-page hardbound catalog[3](https://hextongallery.com/usr/library/documents/main/scott-avett-bio-cv-1-.pdf). Subsequent solo exhibitions include *After the Fact* at the Greenville Museum of Art and *Purpose at Random* at SOCO Gallery, both in 2022, and *Power Outage* at Hexton Gallery in Aspen in 2021; he is represented by SOCO Gallery in Charlotte and Hexton Gallery in Aspen[3](https://hextongallery.com/usr/library/documents/main/scott-avett-bio-cv-1-.pdf) • [9](https://www.wfae.org/arts-culture/2022-10-14/scott-avett-on-another-side-of-his-creativity) • [6](https://www.scottavett.com/).
## Personal life
Avett met his wife Sarah while busking on the street in Greenville, North Carolina, and the two married in 2003; they have three children and live in North Carolina[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5424599/bio/) • [6](https://www.scottavett.com/). His father, Jim Avett, is a performing musician in his own right, and the brothers recorded an album of gospel songs with him[16](https://magnetmagazine.com/2007/05/15/the-avett-brothers-race-for-the-prize/) • [20](https://www.axios.com/local/charlotte/2026/01/22/mount-pleasant-avett-theater-live-music-renovation).
## References
1. [Scott Avett – Biography, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5424599/bio/)
2. [Guster, Avett Brothers and Florence Welch are helping bring alt-rock to the musical theater stage, AP News (2024)](https://apnews.com/article/fa373c914f03f76b024d9b2d5b6e6fe9)
3. [Scott Avett Bio & CV, Hexton Gallery](https://hextongallery.com/usr/library/documents/main/scott-avett-bio-cv-1-.pdf)
4. [Band – A Brief History by Seth Avett, The Avett Brothers](https://www.theavettbrothers.com/band)
5. [The Avett Brothers – Biography, AllMusic](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-avett-brothers-mn0000755152)
6. [Scott Avett, artist website](https://www.scottavett.com/)
7. [The Avett Brothers, Our State (January 2013)](https://www.ourstate.com/the-avett-brothers/)
8. [The Avett Brothers on Their New Album, The Carpenter, Vanity Fair (2012)](https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/10/hot-tracks-avett-brothers)
9. [Scott Avett on another side of his creativity, WFAE (2022)](https://www.wfae.org/arts-culture/2022-10-14/scott-avett-on-another-side-of-his-creativity)
10. [The Avett Brothers at Notre Dame, The Observer (2010)](https://archives.nd.edu/Observer/2010-03-02_v44_104.pdf)
11. [The Avett Brothers: Of Music and Men, Relix (2012)](https://relix.com/features/detail/the-avett-brothers-of-music-and-men)
12. [At the Patriot Center, the Avett Brothers try to straddle two very different worlds, The Washington Post (2014)](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/at-the-patriot-center-the-avett-brothers-try-to-straddle-two-very-different-worlds/2014/03/02/269647da-a177-11e3-878c-65222df220eb_story.html)
13. [REVIEW: The Avett Brothers self-titled, Americana Highways (2024)](https://americanahighways.org/2024/05/15/review-the-avett-brothers-self-titled/amp/)
14. [The Avett Brothers: I and Love and You Album Review, Pitchfork](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/13478-i-and-love-and-you/)
15. [Billboard triple issue, July 2, 2016](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/00s/2016/Billboard-2016-07-02-%28Triple-Issue%29.pdf)
16. [The Avett Brothers: Race For The Prize, Magnet Magazine (2007)](https://magnetmagazine.com/2007/05/15/the-avett-brothers-race-for-the-prize/)
17. [Scott Avett: The Folk Singer & Artist Behind The Avett Brothers, AFMAG](https://afmag.net/people/82323/scott-avett)
18. [The Avett Brothers: Together Through Life, American Songwriter (2013)](https://americansongwriter.com/2013/11/avett-brothers-together-life/)
19. [Scott Avett's artwork is his real salvation song, Denver Gazette (2024)](https://www.denvergazette.com/2024/07/13/scott-avetts-artwork-is-his-real-salvation-song-john-moore-554a86f4-416c-11ef-bd02-af4f5799e083/)
20. [Avett family to help revive historic Cabarrus County theater, Axios Charlotte (2026)](https://www.axios.com/local/charlotte/2026/01/22/mount-pleasant-avett-theater-live-music-renovation)
21. [Mignonette by The Avett Brothers on Apple Music](https://music.apple.com/us/album/mignonette/252534569)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Musicians and ensembles › Individual musical biographies › Blues, folk, and roots musicians › Contemporary folk singer-songwriters › Contemporary indie folk artists*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 12, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license