CARBON LEAF - THE BIO-SPHERE:
The Planet Where Old Bios Go To Die
1996 | 1999 | 2000 | 2002 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007
CIRCA 1996 –
Band Histories are miserable. For the first few years anyway. There is just no history. Unless you're lucky, or good.
Interesting band histories have drama, strife, failure and rejection for a meaty spell. Tragedy usually strikes. Key ingredients for success.
Tragedy has not struck; for that we are thankful, success notwithstanding.
Many times we have not gotten along. The more we play music together, the less we agree or like each other. This is generally good. Disagreement is a sign that each of us is continuing to form strong, personal opinions as to how the music should be played, expressed and structured. There are winners and losers; there are stalemates and compromises. We choose our personal battles to fight and choose others to surrender. Sometimes we're passionate about a point, other times we could care less and have no opinion. Majority-rule can win, or an effective lobby of 1 against All can win.
Everyone's walked out on practice, driven to the river, left town completely.
If a Band can sit in a leaky-rotted, rat-infested, basement for 3 years, put it's egos on the spidery shelf and wage music long enough to discover it's beauty in the bloody aftermath, then going through hard times is cake.
The History of Carbon Leaf? Check back in years.
CIRCA 1999 –
Ether-Electrified Porch Music: Acoustic/Electric/Mandolin rock and roll combining groove, folk, jazz, celtic, bluegrass, country, progressive pop and roots rock into a big pecan log of quirky, spontanious and poetic energy.
Carbon Leaf has been playing clubs and schools on the east coast for 4 years and have sold over 10,000 copies of their 3 independent CDs.
The Band plans to release their 4th independent CD 'Echo Echo' (produced by John Morand) in March 2001.
(This was part of a brochure in an attempt to secure our first booking agent)
Carbon Leaf dubs their sound"Ether-Electrified Porch Music." This Richmond, VA acoustic electric-mandolin rock band is cultivating a grass-roots audience on the college and club scene with a raucous mix of Celtic, groove, roots and pop music.
From backyard barbeque days to shows up the East Coast, this independent, Virginia band is gaining fans from its home state and beyond with a stew of vivid lyrical imagery, strong vocals and harmonies, ambitious acoustic and electric guitar styles, solid-groove bass lines on both the electric and double bass, colorfully percussive drums, mandolin, tin whistle and harmonica.
Carbon Leaf's appeal is the diversity with which they approach their music. The band takes strides to explore - and combine - different styles of music and sounds; fusing groove, jazz, traditional bluegrass and Irish music, roots rock, pop and progressive rock. Influence by artists like Phish, Primus, R.E.M., Bill Monroe, Dave Matthews Band, Neil Young, Morphine and the Pogues.
Carbon Leaf's live shows are as spirited as their songs. The band's music takes on a whole new dimension live, with spontaneity being the mother of re-invention. Running the gamut from evocative and sublime, to upbeat and carefree.
With successful word-of-mouth campaigning and a play schedule averaging 14 shows a month, Carbon Leaf is forging an ever-growing fan base throughout their home state of Virginia and beyond. Formed in college four years ago, Carbon Leaf is rapidly becoming a prominent talent in the Virginia Music Scene. LISTEN UP!
CIRCA - 2002 (Written by a biographer)
“There was something surreal and ‘American Dream’ about the whole thing”,
singer Barry Privett muses. “I refer to it as our Norman Rockwell Moment…”
Appropriate enough descriptions, considering the surreal odds of an unsigned band performing on the American Music Awards for 80 million people globally.
But on January 9th, 2002, Carbon Leaf made history, finding themselves onstage at L.A.’s Shrine Auditorium, with Sheryl Crow and LIT introducing their song ‘The Boxer’, the band’s salvo shot heard ‘round the world, and the lead track off their latest CD, ECHO EHCO.
As the recipient of the first annual Coca-Cola New Music Award – created by Coca-Cola, Dick Clark Productions, and CMJ – Carbon Leaf emerged triumphant over nearly 1000 artists, becoming the first unsigned act to ever perform live in the AMA’s 29-year history.
Back home in Richmond, VA just a few weeks later, Carbon Leaf scrambles in the home office to keep up with the newfound attention and demand for “The Boxer” and ECHO ECHO, their fourth independent CD.
“There was an overwhelming reaction to ‘The Boxer’, Privett says. “People were really surprised that a rock song on a televised Awards show would have a tin whistle in the middle of it.”
As evidenced by the AMAs, Carbon Leaf’s clever balance of a more organic Modern Rock and Pop sound has pierced the veil of current trends. With acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin, electric and double bass, drums, four part harmonies and powerful lyrics, this VA quintet’s energy, sincerity and diversity is their trump card in an industry of acts that has barely learned to play their instruments, or relies on others to do it for them.
“We’ve never been afraid to throw in different stuff,“ rhythm guitarist Terry Clark says. “Carter got a mandolin at one point, and we were like, ‘Well, let’s try it on this tune, instead of guitar’, and it evolved from there.”
Carbon Leaf formed while in school together, with bassist Jordan Medas eventually completing the group a few years later.
“We had no real ambitions at first.” Lead guitarist/mandolin player Carter Gravatt says, referring to the band’s less-refined days as a college band. “We were writing music that seemed to be reflective of the time; more derivative than original. Just having fun and drinking some beer and letting friends laugh at us. But we got bored pretty quickly, and our musical influences started to kick in, so we started writing more, experimenting with a few new ideas.”
People took notice, and Carbon Leaf hit the East Coast college and club circuit after graduation, steadily gaining a reputation as one of the region’s most intriguing must-see bands. After a solid year of touring and throwing out thousands of free demo tapes, the band recorded their first CD MEANDER in ’97, followed by subsequent touring and promoting. However, the original bassist left shortly after Meander was released, and Carbon Leaf found themselves struggling to stay afloat while recording their follow-up CD, SHADOWS IN THE BANQUET HALL.
2 years and 5 bassists later, the band got an email from a musician’s Web Referral site where they had placed an ad. Jordan had just graduated from JMU and was living in Charlottesville at the time, looking for gigs. Shortly after a brief jam with the band, he quit his job, subleased his apartment and moved to Richmond.
“We played our first gig with him on St. Patrick’s Day of ’99 and we knew right away we had something.” Clark says. “Our existing fans were pretty shocked and jaws just kind of hung open all night.”
That same year, with Jordan onboard, the band recorded their third album, ETHER-ELECTRIFRIED PORCH MUSIC, which would prove to be a pivotal point in the band’s song writing and live exposure. “We noticed a definitive change in response when we began incorporating more of the rootsier influences,“ Privett says. “Once we started adding more Celtic or bluegrass-tinged sounds to our music, it felt that what started making sense to us started making sense to the audience as well.”
“It’s cool, because we started drawing all sorts of people.” Clark says of Carbon Leaf’s blended sound. “From teenagers to college students to people in their 20s, 30s, 40s…we started appealing to a wide fan base.”
Having developed their voice musically, Carbon leaf knew their next move was
to capture their magical on-stage vibe in the studio. For ECHO ECHO, the band enlisted John Morand, producer and co-owner with David Lowery (Cracker) at Sound Of Music Recording Studios.
“We said, ‘Okay. We’ve got to push things to the next level.’” Clark says, who knew of John’s work with bands like Cracker, Joan Osborne, sparklehorse and Guster. “We wanted the help of a producer to see what an outsider had to say about the music, rather than fighting amongst ourselves.”
“We went and cut one song with him (‘The Boxer’) just to test the waters,” Clark says, “and at the end of the day, everybody smiled and said, ‘Okay. Let’s make a record.’”
With ECHO EHCO, the eye was focused on making a stronger connection with their audience. For Privett, “The Boxer” set the tone for the rest of the album by stripping away any lyrical or musical veneer to allow for a more honest and human perspective.
“I was thinking a lot about communication and communication breakdown,”
Privett says. “’The Boxer’ was very instrumental in shaping the album, which is a more straight forward rock song that deals primarily with relationships. When two people talk as friends, they don’t talk in poetic terms, they talk in regular tones and regular words, and that’s what we tried to do lyrically and musically, more so than on previous albums. I think it connected with people and just made everything more accessible. Plus the song is just fun.”
Now, after having been judged “The Best Unsigned Band In America” by Dick Clark himself, an AMA under their belt, strong sales for ECHO ECHO and “The Boxer” in regular rotation on AAA stations across the country, Carbon Leaf is doing what they’ve always done: Working hard to ensure a long and rewarding future.
In addition to the positive feedback of music fans everywhere, the AMAs also exposed Carbon Leaf to the most elusive audience of all: The Music Industry.
“We’ve been answering the phone a lot,” Clark says. “We’ve heard from
Labels and we’re trying to put together a solid foundation first, so whether a storm comes or not, we’re ready.”
“Taking rational, measured steps and making wise decisions is crucial at this point,” drummer Scott Milstead says. “Too many bands get hasty or impatient and make bad choices. This is not a craps-shoot for us, it’s our career.”
That wise outlook affects every move this band makes, from their decisions about business and Labels, to their natural musical progression found on ECHO ECHO, to their freewheeling but polished live sets that evoke comparisons to The Pogues, R.E.M., Dave Matthews Band and Bare Naked Ladies. As ever, Carbon Leaf chooses to do things by their own standards, with no plans to change their idiosyncratic, irrefutable tune.
“We’ve been here working on our own thing,” Privett says. “We’ve seen the current trends rise and ebb: grunge, punk, ska, swing, diva pop, power pop, boy bands, and most recently bluegrass. You never know what’s next, and to try and jump on a bandwagon for fear of being left behind is to shortchange your soul. Through it all, we’ve just kept improving what we’ve always done, which is make fresh and interesting music from the heart.”
And that’s exactly what they’re going to keep doing.
CIRCA 2005 - (Written by a biographer)
Indian Summer is almost here -- and for Carbon Leaf, it's a change of season.
Known to fans as America's preeminent unsigned band, the Virginia-based quintet releases its sixth album on July 13. More than the group's strongest effort since its last studio release, the critically acclaimed Echo Echo, Indian Summer marks Carbon Leaf's most profound musical and professional transformation to date.
First, the music: The sound has toughened and deepened. Dynamics are bigger -- the quiet parts whisper more intimately, the crescendos climb to higher peaks of power. Each song hangs on hooks that you won't easily get out of your head. The lyrics are more candid than ever; singer/lyricist Barry Privett's unique way with metaphor and word selection draws from the heart of his own experiences, whether in love or in his broader embrace of life.
Just as important is the band's decision to bring its indie days to a close and sign its first label deal. Indian Summer is Carbon Leaf's debut release for Vanguard Records, whose staying power and reputation provide the perfect complement for this band.
All that's come before this moment -- the buzz that established Carbon Leaf as the hottest act on the Virginia college circuit, its triumph over more than a thousand other bands to win the first Coca-Cola New Music Award, its history-making appearance in 2002 as the first unsigned artists ever to perform at the American Music Awards, its opening slots on tours with John Mayer, Counting Crows, Guster, David Gray, and the Dave Matthews Band -- is just the warm-up.
With Indian Summer, Carbon Leaf, in tandem with Vanguard, makes itself heard to an even wider audience than it's built on its own.
In other words, the adventure is just beginning …
Rewind a couple of years. Eighty million people have witnessed Carbon Leaf's show-stopping performance on the AMA broadcast. The tour book overflows with a year and a half's worth of dates. Echo Echo is well on its way to selling more than fifty thousand copies -- heavy numbers for an indie album. Fans clamor for more; the band responds in April 2003 with 5 Alive!, a double CD packed with live tracks that bear the Carbon Leaf sound -- tight, taut, and intense.
And the seeds of Indian Summer are growing. 5 Alive! bought time to put together an album that would reflect developments in the band since Echo Echo.
As they began sifting through instrumental ideas that Privett could flesh out with lyrics, the guys sensed that their style had broken past the stereotypes that some had imposed on them. "People kept saying we were a Celtic rock band," Privett says. "There was definitely some of that on the last couple of albums and even in some of our new songs. But we were gravitating toward other ideas. Our strongest songs felt a lot fresher to us because we sensed that the time had come for us to explore."
Between segments of its tour the group gathered at its basement studio in Richmond to cut the best of these songs as two-track demos. "We realized that they were becoming simpler in some ways," Privett continues. "The chord structures, the tempos, and the rhythms were more accessible; the vocal parts were more melodic. This made me want to make the lyrics accessible, more 'on your sleeve,' too. It used to be my rule that every line had to be unique. I'm really proud of what I wrote for the second or third album, but it was also a little elusive. This time I wanted to say what I wanted to say more directly."
To achieve that combination of craft, honesty, and clarity, Privett focused on a theme that had real meaning for him. "It's actually the most common theme you could imagine -- love," he says. "But I'd never even tried to write about it until Echo Echo. I guess I avoided it until I felt ready. When you're a kid you don't have a lot of wisdom, so you end up writing stuff that's been said a thousand times already. I've learned enough now to finally draw from real places. The challenge was to approach it from a different angle. For me, that meant not being afraid to sound earnest and emotional."
The rest of the band noticed the change immediately. "His lyrics absolutely blew me away," says Carter Gravatt. "That's how I reacted to 'What About Everything.' I'd given him kind of a vague idea of what I thought the song could be about, but when he brought it back I was overwhelmed. To me, it embodies what goes through my mind when I spend time every winter on the beach in North Carolina, just writing and thinking. A lot of people will relate to it in the same personal way."
That song circles around a litany of questions: "What about when buildings fall? What about that midnight phone call?" Answers aren't spelled out; instead, enlightenment emerges through the asking itself. Elsewhere on Indian Summer a more affirmative spirit asserts itself, with humor on "This Is My Song," more gently on "Let Your Troubles Roll By," with exuberance on "Raise The Roof," "Changeless," and especially on "Paloma," which builds to a lyric hook -- "now you're free" -- that pretty much says all that Privett means to say.
"'Paloma' is one of the most literal songs I've ever written," he insists. "It's about a real person; the name isn't made up. Jordan created that bass line a year and a half ago; it has this great flavor, but I couldn't attach anything to it. Then all of a sudden I had a place to go with it because I had come into somebody's life and experienced this thing that became 'Paloma.'"
After working out arrangements, Carbon Leaf regrouped at Richmond's Sound of Music Studios and began polishing these eleven tracks to perfection. Even at this stage surprises happened: Acoustic guitar replaced the mandolin as the lead instrument in the first single, "Life Less Ordinary." "This Is My Song" morphed from a power ballad in 4/4 to an up-tempo gallop in 6/8 whipped by a stinging guitar lick from Gravatt. A bridge suddenly appeared in the middle of "Grey Sky Eyes." Verses were stretched out or shortened as an inspired Privett improvised or jotted down fresh lyrics.
Producer John Morand and executive producer David Lowery, co-owners of the studio, joined the team. Each has strong credits in the industry: Former Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven frontman Lowery has produced Counting Crows, Joan Osborne, and FSK, while Morand's studio credits include Sparklehorse, Lauren Hoffman, Magnet, and Honor Role. Each understood that the best way to work with this reinvigorated band was to offer input at crucial moments but mainly stay out of its way and let events take care of themselves.
After finishing the Indian Summer sessions, Carbon Leaf came to a crossroads: This album was too hot to release through the indie channels that had served the band well. "We'd done five albums on our own and pushed that as far as it can go," Privett explains. "Obviously, anyone goes with a label in hopes of getting a wider audience and a little more muscle. But because of who we are and what we've achieved, our label had to be committed to artist development -- a rarity these days."
As far as the band was concerned, that narrowed the field down to one. "The people at Vanguard are music minded above all," says Terry Clark. "They're autonomous; they're a large indie. We talked with other bands that worked with them and kept hearing the same positive reports. And it's neat to be with a company that's got that much history. In fact, after we'd signed I went through my dad's old 45s and found a bunch of Vanguard releases from the sixties. I want to frame them, hang them up, and tell people, 'Hey, this is my company now!'"
All of which leads Carbon Leaf to its most significant milestone since that precedent-breaking AMA appearance. With Indian Summer life rearranges itself around this band -- new opportunities, wider exposure, fresh musical perspectives. Yet among the five members the critical elements of camaraderie and creativity endure.
"It's already a lot more intense this year," Privett says. "We've always toured a lot, but now we're doing more stops than ever at radio stations and record stores -- three appearances in a day. We're committed to that. But as for the rest of it, nothing has changed. We're working hard and doing what we do, just as we always have."
CIRCA 2006 - (Written by a biographer)
Virginia-based quintet Carbon Leaf is currently writing and recording in Virginia and Nashville, and will be releasing their 2nd Vanguard Records release this coming September.
The band's fifth studio album, Indian Summer, released in July 2004, marks Carbon Leaf's most profound musical transformation to date since the release of Echo Echo, their critically acclaimed independent cd that won the band an American Music Award in 2001.
The sound has toughened and deepened on Indian Summer. The dynamic range is wider, and the songs hang on hooks that you won't easily get out of your head. The lyrics are more candid than ever; singer/lyricist Barry Privett's unique way with metaphor and word selection draws from the heart of his own experiences, whether in love or in his broader embrace of life.
The band's decision to bring its indie days to a close and sign its first label deal with independent label Vanguard Records has proven to be a great step forward. The label's staying power and artist-friendly reputation provide the perfect complement for the band.
Rewind a couple of years. With the intense touring after the AMA broadcast, the band needed to look towards recording their next album. With being on the road 250-300 days a years, the trick was finding the time to do it. Sales for Echo Echo were closing in on fifty thousand copies since the AMA broadcast-- heavy numbers for an indie album -- and fans were asking for more. The band decided it was time to release something while working on the new cd, so in 2003, while on the road, the band recorded and released 5 ALIVE!, a double CD of live tracks and a handful of new originals that expanded on their studio work and allowed a glimpse into their dynamic live shows.
As the seed of Indian Summer was germinating, 5 Alive! bought some time to put together an album that would reflect developments in the band since Echo Echo.
As they began sifting through instrumental ideas that Privett could flesh out with lyrics, the guys sensed that their style had broken past the stereotypes that some had imposed on them. "People kept saying we were a Celtic rock band," Privett says. "There was definitely some of that on the last couple of albums and even in some of our new songs. But we were gravitating toward other ideas. We wrote 21 songs for Indian Summer, and the strongest of those songs felt a lot fresher to us because we the time had come for us to explore again, not rehash what we had already done."
Between segments of its tour the group gathered at its basement studio in Richmond to cut the best of these songs as two-track demos. "We realized that they were becoming simpler in some ways," Privett continues. "The chord structures, the tempos, and the rhythms were more accessible; the vocal parts were more melodic. This made me want to make the lyrics accessible, more 'on your sleeve,' too. It used to be my rule that every line had to be unique. I'm really proud of what I wrote for the second or third album, but it was also a little elusive. This time I wanted to say what I wanted to say more directly."
To achieve that combination of craft, honesty, and clarity, Privett focused on the common theme that has meaning for everyone. "It was time to face the theme I had tended to avoid musically - love," he says. "I'd never earnestly tried to write about it until Echo Echo. I guess I avoided it until I felt ready. When you're a kid you don't have a lot of wisdom, so you end up writing stuff that's been said a thousand times already. I've at least learned enough now to finally draw from real places. The challenge was to approach it from a different angle. For me, that meant not being afraid to sound earnest and emotional."
The rest of the band noticed the change immediately. "His lyrics absolutely blew me away," says Carter Gravatt. "That's how I reacted to 'What About Everything.'
That song circles around a litany of questions: "What about when buildings fall? What about that midnight phone call?" Answers aren't spelled out; instead, enlightenment emerges through the asking itself. Elsewhere on Indian Summer a more affirmative spirit asserts itself, with humor on "This Is My Song," more gently on "Let Your Troubles Roll By," with exuberance on "Raise The Roof," "Changeless," and especially on "Paloma," which builds to a lyric hook -- "now you're free" -- that pretty much says all that Privett means to say.
"'Paloma' is one of the most literal songs I've ever written," he reveals. "It's about a real person; the name isn't made up. Jordan created that bass line a year and a half ago; it has this great flavor, but I couldn't attach anything to it, and would always put it away after growing repeatedly frustrated by it. Then all of a sudden, we were driving to a show in Charlottesville and something clicked and I had a place to go with it because in the interim I had come into somebody's life and experienced this thing that became 'Paloma.'" I spent several hours on the steps by the train tracks finishing the song and we played it out that night. I had to read it from a notebook and it was all out of key because I wasn't used to the melody. A girl in the front had to hold the notebook for me during the whistle part. There's a recording of that somewhere and you can hear me say, "Here, hold this!'"
After working out arrangements, Carbon Leaf regrouped at Richmond's Sound of Music Studios and began polishing these eleven tracks to perfection. Even at this stage surprises happened: Acoustic guitar replaced the mandolin as the lead instrument in the first single, "Life Less Ordinary." "This Is My Song" morphed from a power ballad in 4/4 to an up-tempo gallop in 6/8 whipped by a great guitar hook from Gravatt. A bridge suddenly appeared in the middle of "Grey Sky Eyes." Verses were stretched out or shortened as an inspired Privett improvised or jotted down fresh lyrics.
Producer John Morand and executive producer David Lowery, co-owners of the studio, joined the team. Each has strong credits in the industry: Former Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven frontman Lowery has produced Counting Crows, Joan Osborne, and FSK, while Morand's studio credits include Sparklehorse, Lauren Hoffman, Magnet, and Honor Role. Each understood that the best way to work with this reinvigorated band was to offer input at crucial moments but mainly stay out of its way and let events take care of themselves.
After finishing the Indian Summer sessions, Carbon Leaf came to a crossroads: release it through the indie channels that had served the band well or look for a label. "We'd done five albums on our own and pushed that as far as it can go," Privett explains. "Obviously, anyone goes with a label in hopes of getting a wider audience and a little more muscle. But because of who we are and what we've worked for independently, our label had to be committed to artist development -- a rarity these days."
As far as the band was concerned, that narrowed the field down to one. "The people at Vanguard are music-minded above all," says Terry Clark. "They're autonomous; they're a large indie. We talked with other bands that worked with them and kept hearing the same positive reports. And it's neat to be with a company that's got that much history. In fact, after we'd signed I went through my dad's old 45s and found a bunch of Vanguard releases from the sixties."
All of which leads Carbon Leaf to its most significant milestone since that precedent-breaking AMA appearance. With Indian Summer life rearranges itself around this band -- new opportunities, wider exposure, fresh musical perspectives. Yet among the five members the critical elements of camaraderie and creativity endure.
"It's been a lot more intense these past few years," Privett says. "We've always toured a lot, but now we're doing more stops than ever at radio stations and record stores -- three appearances in a day sometimes. We're committed to that. But as for the rest of it, nothing has changed. We're working hard and doing what we do, just as we always have. The work keeps you honest."
CIRCA 2007 – (Written by a biographer)
Carbon Leaf blasted into the national spotlight two years ago with their major label debut, Indian Summer. But while they kept busy working as support on major national tours (Dave Matthews Band, Counting Crows, John Mayer, etc.) and headlining their own, these Virginia-based self-starters kept moving forward musically as well as professionally. That point rings clear throughout Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat, a collection of new songs whose sound is the richest, whose grooves are the most infectious, and whose messages run the deepest of anything they've yet put to disc.
With Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat, Carbon Leaf defines itself as a tight instrumental unit, capable of cranking up the heat even with scaled-down arrangements based on acoustic guitar, in perfect complement to a vocal sound that cannot be mistaken for anyone else's. Barry Privett has mastered the art of singing with a compelling detachment; his voice, whether on its own or woven into two- and three-part harmony, beckons the listener into the lyric as it opens within the heart of these songs.
And it's worth getting close to what Privett has to say. Riding with the band's creative ascent, he has his head in the clouds on both ends of the album, beginning with track one, the single Learn to Fly, and soaring all the way to the end, in the witty imagery of International Airport. Between these points of departure he spends some time back on the ground, taking the train to oblivion at the crossing of our lives on Under the Wire, trudging down roads paved with ice from the darkest tears but brightened by the ones around you now on Royal One, racing down open highways toward a collision of the heart on Comfort, and even standing still, watching helplessly as love gallops from reach on A Girl and Her Horse.
On these tracks, in fact, throughout all of Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat, Privett emerges as possibly the most inventive writer of metaphor in music today. As the title suggests, A Block of Wood is pretty much about exactly that, though Privett turns it over and around until we see it as a symbol of something whittled into oblivion and lost - "In the ash I found an ember, something warm blowing in the wind." Perhaps his finest moment comes on The War Was In Color, a touching dialogue between grandfather and grandson that turns, in a moment, into an unexpected, eloquent elegy.
"I wanted songs that were emotionally available to the listener and to me," he explains, "without trying to mask what Im saying with clever language. The feelings are anxious and regretful. They talk about living up to the mistakes you've made. They examine the humanity and weaknesses of everyday life."
It is surprising yet not, too, in a way that these finely chiseled performances gelled as quickly as they did, during a three-week rush of recording in Nashville followed by ten days of overdubbing in Richmond. Departing from previous routine, Carbon Leaf didn't work out this material on the road before hitting the studio. Instead, they started rolling tape with nothing but rough sketches as their guides, which they fleshed into arrangements that might serve as models of instrumental economy at no loss to emotional impact.
This is, of course, a tribute to the synchronicity that the band has developed through more than ten years of teamwork. But it speaks as well to the input of Peter Collins, one of the most respected producers in the business. With more than 20 years worth of achievement on projects with Bon Jovi, Elton John, Rush, Jewel, and dozens of other high-profile artists, Collins could apply outstanding ears and experience to Carbon Leafs ideas. It was, Privett insists, an ideal meeting of minds.
"We tend to write freely, without editing," he explains. "Peter helped us trim our stuff and at the same time open it up. As the songs came together, I realized we were writing about the unseen forces that drive our lives: the seasons of the year, the human cycle of love and loss, life and death, despair and hope. The phrase love, loss, hope, repeat became the album title because it summed up the bittersweet tone of these songs."
It also documents the self-awareness that the members of Carbon Leaf have developed, as individuals and as an ensemble. They've come a long way from their decision, as students at Randolph-Macon College, to try their luck at forming a band. But for all they've accomplished, Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat is something different. It is, in fact, a turning point: accessible yet poetically elusive, rhythmically irresistible yet understated, a harbinger of what will come & the sum of what had gone before. Carbon Leaf, like Privett's celestial visions, is on its way up.
CIRCA 2007 - (ALAN SCULLEY NORTH COUNTY TIMES, SAN DIEGO)
Plenty of longtime Carbon Leaf fans will notice that on the group’s two most recent CDs, 2004’s “Indian Summer” and the newly released “Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat,” there’s an obvious absence of the sound that once got Carbon Leaf labeled by some as a Celtic/bluegrass band.
It’s not that Carbon Leaf wanted to abandon its Celtic roots or had forgotten about that influence. It’s just that the last time the band got its “Irish” up, the results were less than enthralling.
“The albums are decidedly non-Celtic,” Carbon Leaf singer Barry Privett saidin a recent phone interview. “They weren’t intended to get us out of that
(Celtic) box so much that we had kind of grown tired of that box. For‘Indian Summer’ we had written probably 22 songs to see which ones would make the cut. A lot of the songs had that Celtic influence, but we had already kind of been mining that territory for a few years. The songs that we had written that had that influence just didn’t feel inspired anymore.”
As a result, “Indian Summer” and especially “Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat” have emphasized Carbon Leaf’s rock and pop influences.
The direction is apparent with tracks such as “Learn to Fly,” “A Girl and Her Horse” and “Under the Wire,” which all feature strong pop melodies. The rootsier side of Carbon Leaf, meanwhile, shows on acoustic-leaning tunes such as “The War Was in Color” and “Block of Wood,” while on “Comfort” and “Texas Stars,” the group rocks a bit more briskly.
The more pronounced rock and pop influences surfaced on “Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat” ---- the band’s seventh CD ---- for a variety of reasons, Privett said, including the fast pace that surrounded the writing and recording of the CD.
After spending January writing material for the CD, the band faced a tight schedule for recording. The band, which also includes Carter Gravatt (guitar/mandolin), Terry Clark (guitar), Jordan Medas (bass) and Scott Milstead (drums), had only three weeks for the session and a couple of weeks for overdubs.
This meant there wasn’t time to be too fussy with the basic tracks for “Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat” or to do much additional recording during the overdub sessions ---- a situation that led to a leaner, more rocking sound on the CD.
This more direct sound, though, wasn’t unplanned. The group went into “Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat” wanting to create songs that were shorter and more tightly constructed than on its first several albums.
They found an ally in that mission in Peter Collins, a producer whose resume includes projects with Bon Jovi, Elton John and Rush.
“He’s kind of pop oriented (in his) approach to song structure,” Privett said. “We tend to write long intros and a solo and a bridge and maybe a second bridge. We’ll add lots of pieces to songs. He kind of is the opposite. So we had to work with him (on arrangements). And we were in agreement. We wanted to try something a little different, shorter songs and little bit more focus on getting more into a smaller time frame.”
The shift toward more of a rock-pop sound should help Carbon Leaf further expand its audience.
For about a dozen years, the Richmond, Va.-based band has been used to earning fans the hard way ---- one show at a time. For the first nine years of its career, Carbon Leaf was a do-it-yourself band in the purest sense of the term. The group self-released its first five CDs and was self-managed, self-booked and self-promoted.
But things began to accelerate for the band in 2002 when it won the Coca-Cola New Music Award for the song “The Boxer,” off of the band’s fifth and final self-released CD, “Echo Echo.” Part of the prize was the opportunity to become one of the rare unsigned bands to ever play on the American Music Awards.
The exposure from the award and the AMA performance enabled the group to attract a manager, booking agent, publicist and lawyer, while extensive touring coupled with the increased media attention from the group’s AMA performance and some scattered radio play for “The Boxer” helped raise Carbon Leaf’s profile.
Eventually record labels started to check out the group, and after once again funding the recording of “Indian Summer” itself, Carbon Leaf signed to Vanguard Records, which released the CD in 2004. Privett said it was time to put the distribution and marketing capabilities of a record company behind the band.
The move so far seems to have worked. The song “Life Less Ordinary” off “Indian Summer” became a modest adult radio hit and gave Carbon Leaf its first taste of mainstream exposure.
“You probably end up making less money (than) the setup as an independent band, but you get more exposure,” Privett said. “So we were ready to take that risk, knowing there’s not a whole lot to lose. You can always go back to being independent if it doesn't work out."