‘The Carpenter’ lacks carefree energy, plays on honest emotions 
If you ever go to an Avett Brothers concert, one thing you’ll notice — besides the absurd amount of plaid — is the diverse crowd. There are the young teenagers discreetly lighting a joint in the back of the pack, the old couple awkwardly holding hands and swaying and everyone else in between.
That’s because the trio band from North Carolina provides a mix of country, folk and bluegrass that evokes a sense of community and commonality that appeals to a broad audience. The Sept. 11 release of their seventh album “The Carpenter” continues with this thread. In the first song, “The Once and Future Carpenter,” the theme of community is explicitly expressed in the lyrics “We’re all in this together / If I live the life I’m given, I won’t be scared to die.”
Frontmen brothers Scott and Seth Avett and bassist Rob Crawford confront issues of life and death in “The Carpenter” in a very personal way. Since 2011, the band has been dealing with the illness of Crawford’s daughter, who was diagnosed with brain cancer. The new songs still resonate with their usual honesty and openheartedness, but there is a fresh vulnerability expressed in the hauntingly sweet tracks “Winter in My Heart” and “Through My Prayers.”
In “Live and Die,” a prereleased single, the band sings of resilience and relatability while trying to understand death. While the band members look inward and confront their own mortality, listeners can connect emotionally to the lyrics “Live and die / We’re the same, you and I / We’re the same.”
Like 2009’s album “I and Love and You,” there is more time devoted to slower acoustic tracks. Only the louder sounds of “Paul Newman Versus the Demons” and “Pretty Girl from Michigan” deviate from this approach.
Avett Brothers fans who enjoyed “I and Love and You” will enjoy “The Carpenter.” While it lacks some of the carefree energy and raw enthusiasm of their earlier albums, “The Carpenter” is contemplative and thought-provoking in a way those were not. And it’s worth a second listen. Or a third.