Avett Brothers’ Bob Crawford ’03 Finds Happiness in Music

While earning his music degree, Bob Crawford ’03, center, joined The Avett Brothers – Scott, left, and Seth Avett, right – in 2002. The band appeared a few times at Winthrop and its increasing popularity has led to recent television appearances.

Bob Crawford is a big believer that it’s never too late to chase down a dream. He should know – he came to Winthrop at age 29 to study music, and by graduation he was part of a band Rolling Stone magazine has dubbed an Artist to Watch 2009.

Crawford, who earned his B.A. in music, joined The Avett Brothers in 2002, after a fellow Winthrop student heard brothers Seth and Scott Avett needed an upright bass player and recommended Crawford. Since then, the North Carolina-based band has released several critically acclaimed albums, including 2009’s fast-rising “I and Love and You,” opened for Dave Matthews Band and Widespread Panic and performed on “The Late Show with David Letterman” and “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.”

The wave of success has been unexpected for Crawford, who had planned on working as a music teacher or professor, but he’s happy to “give back” to the career he loves.

“The more success gives you, the more you’ve got to pay it back. We have a responsibility to fulfill our end of the bargain,” said Crawford. Though the rigorous touring/performing schedule can be draining, the Atlantic City, N.J., native relies heavily on his love of music and his desire to keep learning (he’s picked up the trumpet) and his camaraderie – “the greatest gift ever, something you can’t put a price on,” he says – with Scott and Seth. Crawford also leans on the musical education he received at Winthrop, which “lit a thirst” for knowledge that “has never stopped.”

“Winthrop is an amazing place that gave me an education I use every single day in one way or another; it molded and created me as a musician,” said Crawford.