Metro Pulse/Music/Carbon Leaf

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What:
Carbon Leaf

When:
Mondays, Oct. 20, 27 & Nov. 3

Where:
Barley's

Cost:
$4

Tireless touring builds reputation of Richmond band

by Paige M. Travis

Bands everywhere want to call you their own. They court your attention, schedule tours around you, broker your love of them for record contracts. You are a music fan.

Carbon Leaf, a five-piece band from Richmond, Va., claims many fans across the country, maybe even the world, but that's not quite enough. If they have their way in the next few weeks, you will be converted to their energetic and harmonious, Irish-tinged pop rock.

Carbon Leaf earned a lot of attention in early 2002 by being the first unsigned band to perform at the American Music Awards. They landed the gig by beating out nearly 1,000 other bands to win the Coca-Cola New Music Award. Their song, "The Boxer" won Best Rock Song in the 2002 International Songwriting Competition, and it was featured in a commercial for the Pontiac Vibe. The band's growing list of achievements drew attention from numerous major newspapers and increased their presence on the radio. You might expect them to have returned, triumphant, to Richmond and waited for the phone to ring. But that's not what happened, says songwriter and lead singer Barry Privett.

"When we played the AMA's, with a TV audience of 80 million, all of the people in the auditorium were famous. Five days later, we fly home and play a college jam for 50 people." He laughs at the contrasting images.

Almost two years later, Carbon Leaf still isn't signed to a major label, but inking a lucrative deal isn't top priority for the band that already has five self-released CDs under its proverbial belt. They just released their first live disc, 5 Alive, in August, and their fifth studio album, produced by John Morand and David Lowery, of Cracker, will hit stores in January 2004. Clearly, they're not waiting around for David Geffen to call. Signing the right contract is more important when, and if, the time comes.

"It's got to be our choice," Privett says. "I've seen bands that have a big fanbase, and the labels work that. You can really leverage what you have. When you're signing with a label, there's going to be some compromises made."

A band can never have too many fans, and Carbon Leaf is on the road to recruit more. For three weeks this fall, the band will play a circuit of Knoxville on Mondays (at Barley's), Auburn, Ala. on Tuesdays, and Athens, Ga. on Wednesdays.

"What we're trying to do is blitz an area that we haven't really played much or where we've just started to get some recognition," Privett says. Bands like Hootie and the Blowfish, the Dave Matthews Band and Jump Little Children have built their careers on becoming familiar faces at clubs across the Southeast. And such bands with regional followings appeal to record companies who see the potential for a regional favorite to become a national hit. Carbon Leaf is earning a similar reputation for their expansive tour schedule. Privett is aiming to saturate the market all in one swoop, rather than tease an audience by appearing only three or four times per year. The "guerilla-style" approach, as Privett calls it, has already worked in the midwest.

Loyal fans, especially those in your home base, will stick by you, whether or not a record company comes calling. Last May, Carbon Leaf was voted Best Band in Richmond, Best Rock Band, and Best Live Show in Richmond.com's Reader's Choice Music Awards. Privett appreciates the recognition; the band hasn't gotten too big for their britches just yet. They've been on tour with John Mayer, David Gray, and the Dave Matthews Band, who, as fellow road warriors based in Charlottesville, Va., are a particular inspiration.

"We've been doing this long enough to see the arc of their career," Privett says. "Even they started playing on Tuesdays somewhere."

5 Alive is a two-disc preview of the band's hyper-entertaining live shows. The 22 songs are selections from their studio discs, with highlights including an intro of The Beach Boys' "Sloop John B" and a version of Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train." The band sounds like the Pogues meets They Might Be Giants, with a rich rhythm section lightened by lilting harmonies and the occasional mandolin and penny whistle—the instrument that draws the Celtic association.

"It's kind of been creeping into the music after a few albums," Privett says. He and guitarist Terry Clark studied in Ireland during college and let the music and culture seep in.

While Carbon Leaf's members live the majority of their lives on the road, they keep their eyes on the prize—which doesn't seem to be a major record deal or worldwide fame, but something more like the daily satisfaction of a job well done. And a few more fans added to the ranks.

"When we're on stage—whether we're opening for somebody big or we're playing on a Monday in a new town in front of 20 people—it has to be the best performance," Privett says. "The bottom line is, if we don't have a good time doing what we do, nobody's going to have a good time. If you have a vision for what you want to be, it's easy to stave off discouragement. We keep focused on what we're doing. Everybody's gotta start playing in front of nobody."