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Long road for Leaf
Carbon Leaf, the "Rocky" of Virginia rock bands, plays the University of Washington Wednesday night
Date published: 11/23/2006
By MICHAEL ZITZ Nothing's come easily for Carbon Leaf. One might say they've been the "Rocky" of Virginia rock--especially since the song that made the difference for the Richmond band is titled "The Boxer." It's been a long, hard fight for the band that started at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland in 1992 and finally broke through with its sixth album, "Indian Summer," which included the single "Life Less Ordinary," in 2004. The University of Mary Washington will host "An Evening with Carbon Leaf" Wednesday at Dodd Auditorium. The group's big break came when it won an Internet contest involving 1,000 bands in 2002. Carbon Leaf won the American Music Awards Presents the Coca-Cola New Music Award for "The Boxer." The prize: performing the song live on the AMAs before a worldwide audience of 80 million. After that, "The Boxer" entered regular rotation on Washington's DC101 (WWDC) and other radio stations. "Before that, we were kind of spinning our wheels," lead singer Barry Privett told The Free Lance-Star this week. "That boosted our profile a bit." Since then, Carbon Leaf has toured with the Dave Matthews Band, the Counting Crows, John Mayer and others, and has released its seventh album, "Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat." In 2004, Carbon Leaf signed with Vanguard Records, which is part of the Welk Music Group. Others signed with that group include Nickel Creek, Mindy Smith, John Hiatt, Allison Moorer and Sam Bush. Carbon Leaf is highly accessible for a rock act. Privett said the band begins with the question, "What is the emotional resonance of the song? Can people relate to it?" He said Carbon Leaf's fan base "runs the gamut from teenagers to people in their 40s and 50s, and everyone in between. It's a pretty big mix." The band consists of Privett on vocals, penny whistle and acoustic guitar; Terry Clark on electric and acoustic guitar and vocals; Carter Gravatt on acoustic and electric mandolins, acoustic and electric guitar, 12-string guitar, lap steel, bouzouki, loops and effects and vocals; Jordan Medas on electric bass, bowed and double bass and vocals; and Scott Milstead on drums and percussion and vocals. "None of us had ambitions to do this in college," said Privett, a 36-year-old Norfolk native. "When we got into school, we sort of slipped into a rhythm" of playing gigs. Along the way, a strong work ethic developed. "We knew this is not gonna come easy," he said. Members of the group, he said, kept saying to one another: "We need to do a lot more than we're doing now." They still say that, he said. "It takes a lot of work to get a band up and running to a certain level," Privett said, "and to kind of maintain that level. As you're getting older, you have to work even harder to make any money that really means anything in this business. That's certainly a struggle." To reach MICHAEL ZITZ:
Date published: 11/23/2006
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