“I wrote “Mess” in September of 2013 while packing my car to move to Nashville.”
“This song is about being pursued by the “Mama Bear” type, who wants to coddle you and help you figure out how to convert what ails you into something sustainable or at least temporarily manageable. I think it implies some kind of question as to the true motives of that type of person.
It was a time in my life when I felt immense vulnerability; like I was wet clay and wasn’t comfortable being shaped. “Mess” is another chapter in the long and tedious tale of the exorcism of my egomania.
Kim Griffith directed, shot, and edited this video in Fort Worth last month. This is a snapshot of what life on the road can be like, and was inspired by an early tour I did where low turn out was repeatedly blamed on the fact that The Avett Brothers were playing in the same town on the same night and ‘anyone that would be here is probably at their show.'”
—Christian Lee Hutson
