Timothy Seth Avett as Darling

Ramseur Records sent out a late Christmas present to Avett Brothers fans last weekend, announcing that their label would re-release all of the extremely rare solo material that Avett brother Seth released under the name Darling nearly a decade ago.

Some Bad Dream – Darling

Seth tells of the earnest backstory behind these recordings:

“In the year 2001, at twenty-one years of age, I recorded an album entitled To Make the World Quiet. The inspiration for the piece was urgent and impatient. There was no managerial or label involvement. There was no funding. Without any consideration towards who (if anyone) would hear the result of this outing, I happily executed each aspect of the process, including all writing, performance of each instrument, engineering and modest production.

The following year, I again, by the same process was obliged to record an album. Killing the Headlamps was the realization of this second venture as ‘Darling’. Both albums were made on a 4-track cassette recorder. I initially mixed them both on a low-fidelity home stereo in my kitchen (to yet another cassette). I spent a perhaps unhealthy amount of time with a ruler, an Xacto knife, and a real-time dual-deck cd duplicator, hand-assembling these two albums (along with the first couple thousand units of the first official Avett Brothers recording Country Was).

Until New Years Eve 2010, the only physical copies of these records laid in the hands of maybe a few hundred people that I sold them to personally. I have been honored by the continued interest in these early works as expressed by those who have inquired about them at Avett performances. It is this kind inquiry that has inspired me again; this time to make them readily available through a proper duplication and ordering process. My sincere thanks go out to all who have made these current developments possible, not least of all to the Avett Brothers fans, who have graciously provided the fire to keep the interest in these solo works alive.”
- Seth Avett

To celebrate the re-release of these rare recordings, the folks at Crackerfarm have made some simple (and stunning) new videos of performances of songs off these albums. Here is one, with another now available –and three more coming– at the the Darling website.