“The Square Before Square One”
Avett Brothers Music
Many of these arrangements of Avett Brothers songs, especially those before I and Love and You are heavily indebted to AvettBrothersTabs.com. In many cases, I began with the material there, correcting occasional mistakes and reformatting for print. I also owe a debt to my pal Matt, both in working out these arrangements and testing them together.
Many of these files were created with Word 2007 using a Quick Style Set designed for the purpose, using the open source font Deja Vu. More recent additions were created using Apple Pages ’09, and since late 2018, I’ve been using the most recent version of Pages.
Some of these arrangements include tablature for intros, outros, interludes, etc. However, base note walks and the like are rarely noted, where simply listening to the recording will illuminate things. Harmonies, echoes and such are also noted.
A Couple Explanations
One or two of my notation styles need some special explanation.
I will often put parentheses around a chord—thus:(G)—where it “feels” like a chord change belongs, but you’re really staying on the same chord as in the previous phrase. I find this helpful—and much less confusing than the convention one sometimes sees of simply repeating the chord in such a spot, making it appear there is a chord change where there isn’t.
In other cases, I’ll use a pair of brackets around a chord—thus:[G]—where the chord has already been played. This happens in places where the last chord of a verse or chorus is also the first chord of a bridge.
Feedback Welcome
Please e-mail me or leave a comment if you find any mistakes, or if you work out any new arrangements you’d like me to post here.
The Songs (Listed Alphabetically)
- About Love (Darling) [PDF]
- Ain't No Man [PDF]
- All My Mistakes [PDF]
- And It Spread [PDF]
- Apart from Me [PDF]
- Backwards with Time [PDF]
- Better Here [PDF]
- Black, Blue [PDF]
- Bring Your Love to Me [PDF]
- C Sections and Railway Trestles [PDF]
- Closing Night [PDF]
- Die Die Die [PDF]
- Distraction No 74 [PDF]
- Divorce Separation Blues [PDF]
- Down with the Shine [PDF]
- The Fall [PDF]
- Famous Flower of Manhattan [PDF]
- February Seven [PDF]
- Find My Love [PDF]
- Fisher Road to Hollywood [PDF]
- A Gift for Melody Anne [PDF]
- Good to You [PDF]
- Hand Me Down Tune [PDF]
- I Wish I Was [PDF]
- I Would Be Sad [PDF]
- I and Love and You [PDF]
- Ill With Want [PDF]
- In Your Light (Darling) [PDF]
- In the Curve [PDF]
- Incomplete and Insecure [PDF]
- January Wedding [PDF]
- Kick Drum Heart Acoustic [PDF]
- Late in Life [PDF]
- Left on Laura, Left on Lisa [PDF]
- Letter to a Pretty Girl [PDF]
- Life [PDF]
- Live and Die [PDF]
- Love Like the Movies [PDF]
- A Lover Like You [PDF]
- The Lowering [PDF]
- Mama, I Don't Believe [PDF]
- Matrimony [PDF]
- May It Last [PDF]
- Morning Song [PDF]
- My Last Song to Jenny [PDF]
- My Losing Bet [PDF]
- Neapolitan Sky [PDF]
- Never Been Alive [PDF]
- The New Love Song [PDF]
- No Hard Feelings [PDF]
- Nothing Short of Thankful [PDF]
- November Blue [PDF]
- Offering [PDF]
- The Once and Future Carptenter [PDF]
- Open Ended Life [PDF]
- Paranoia in Bb Major [PDF]
- Please Pardon Yourself [PDF]
- Pretend Love [PDF]
- Pretty Girl from Cedar Lane [PDF]
- Pretty Girl from Matthews [PDF]
- Rejects in the Attic [PDF]
- Roses and Sacrifice [PDF]
- SSS [PDF]
- Salvation Song [PDF]
- Satan Pulls the Strings [PDF]
- Satan Pulls the Strings LIVE [PDF]
- Shame [PDF]
- Sixteen in July [PDF]
- Skin and Bones [PDF]
- Smithsonian [PDF]
- Smoke in Our Lights [PDF]
- Sorry Man [PDF]
- Souls Like the Wheels (Full Band) [PDF]
- Tear Down the House [PDF]
- This Night Here (Darling) [PDF]
- Tin Man [PDF]
- Trouble Letting Go [PDF]
- True Sadness [PDF]
- Victims of Life [PDF]
- When I Drink [PDF]
- When You Learn [PDF]
- Who Will I Hold [PDF]
- Will You Return [PDF]
- Winter in my Heart [PDF]
- Yard Sale [PDF]
- You Are Mine [PDF]
Total songs: 86
[…] I stumbled on this awesome widget for figuring out what guitar chord you’re playing. I’ve used this both for figuring out chords I’ve come up with when composing, and for determining how to annotate chords figured out when I’m laying out songs, as in my Avett Brothers Archive. […]
Comment posted January 11th, 2011 at 1:46 pm
[…] my complete archive of Avett Brothers (and a few and Darling) songs—58 in all, so far—right here. Other recent additions include November Blue [PDF], Matrimony [PDF] and Life […]
Comment posted November 3rd, 2013 at 7:01 pm
I’m new to discovering these boys and can’t get enough.
Any chance you will turn something out for Ten Thousand Words or The Weight of Lies.
Well done, thanks for sharing.
Your work is very helpful, thank you!
Frank
Comment posted August 7th, 2014 at 7:05 pm
Wow. This site is an amazing resource. Thanks!
I’m pretty sure the 2nd interlude in February Seven is:
C / Em / Dm / G
Also done this way at the end.
Comment posted June 14th, 2017 at 7:09 am
Dave, you’re totally right. My son picked up on that mistake ages ago, but I’ve only just now corrected the PDF. Thanks for your patience!
Comment posted January 26th, 2019 at 3:01 pm
Any chance you’ll do Go To Sleep? You do a fantastic job with all the songs you’ve completed.
Comment posted August 5th, 2021 at 12:55 pm
Hey Frank,
Actually, I got started on “Go To Sleep” a few months ago, but then got distracted by something else. I can’t promise anything soon, but I’ll try to get that one up here some time.
— Ericx
Comment posted October 13th, 2021 at 1:08 pm
Hey Eric,
I hope all is well. On your end? I see you have started on Go To Sleep, any progress? I tinkered and play it out of C with capo on the 5th fret. C-F-G, typical. It’s a great sing to play and get into. Cheers!
Comment posted July 28th, 2022 at 6:10 am