The Avett Brothers have great taste when it comes to selecting cover songs.
The folk rock band made up of brothers Scott and Seth Avett (hence the name of the group) have had a number of hits, including “Ain’t No Man” and “Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise.” They tend to stay in the folk sound, but like many other folk groups, they can sometimes ride the line between their own genre and country.
And when the Avett Brothers decide to jump into country music, they can certainly handle it.
That’s been proven true when the brothers cue up a country cover at their concerts. Their go-to, as of late, has been Toby Keith’s “As Good as I Once Was.” They performed the song at Red Rocks last year, and also went to it when they were a part of the “Concert For Carolina” benefit concert back in October. The Avett Brothers are from Concord, North Carolina, so it only made sense for them to join in when Eric Church and Luke Combs put together the all-hands-on-deck event that raised over $24.5 million for Hurricane Helene relief.
Toby Keith’s “As Good as I Once Was” is considered to be a timeless classic of his. The late, great country artist released it in 2005 as the second single from his Honkytonk University album. The Big Dog Daddy wrote it with Scotty Emerick, and the song peaked at #1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, staying at the top for six weeks. It even tied with his 2003 single “Beer for My Horses” for his longest-running number one single.
All that to say that it’s a hell of a song, and it perfectly encapsulates the sing-song storytelling that Toby Keith mastered during his legendary music career. Some artists might find it intimidating to cover, but Scott and Seth Avett seem rather comfortable with the lyrics and nuances of the track. And I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that they sounded damn good when they brought the song to their Austin City Limits setlist.
Their full ACL concert is set to air on January 18, but the program’s YouTube account decided to share the Avett Brothers’ tribute to Toby Keith a little early.
You can view it below:
Pretty solid, right?
It’s so good, in fact, that it makes me want to flip back and forth between their cover and Toby’s original version for the next couple of hours (why not right?). You can join me in doing so if you want to, especially since Keith’s music video for “As Good As I Once Was” is an all-timer. Toby sure had a way with making iconic music videos.
The video follows the exact, comical story that the lyrics of the song throws out, including Toby running into twin sisters at a bar, and the Big Dog Daddy getting into a massive bar fight only because someone spilled a little bit of his beer. It’s Toby Keith at his best, or at the very least, as good as he once was.
“As Good As I Once Was”