Carbon Leaf

Band members

Former band members

1992–2004: The Constant Ivy Music years

Carbon Leaf got their start at Randolph-Macon College in Virginia in 1992, practicing in an auditorium on campus. Their next step was playing backyard parties, mixers, fraternity, and sorority parties. Shortly after everyone graduated, they moved to Richmond, Virginia. From Richmond, they played the college circuit in Virginia and up the East Coast before moving on to clubs. Their style is not "Brazilian Polka Metal", despite the joking claims of guitarist Carter Gravatt (B., David. 2002).

Meander, their first album, was released in 1995. The first songs Carbon Leaf wrote, including "One Day" and "Country Monkee" are on the album.

Shadows in the Banquet Hall, released in 1997, includes "Flood," "Wolftrap and Fireflies," and "Attica's Flower Box Window." An award-winning video was made for "Flood."

Ether~Electrified Porch Music (1999) is the first album with Jordan Medas as the bassist and contains "Home" and "American Tale." The band had sold over 10,000 copies of their first three independent CDs by late 1999, released on their own label, Constant Ivy Music.

Echo Echo was released in 2001 with "The Boxer" as the first track. In January 2002, Carbon Leaf won the first-ever American Music Awards Presents the Coca-Cola New Music Award for "The Boxer." As part of winning they performed "The Boxer" live on the AMAs, becoming the first unsigned band to perform at the awards show. Following this appearance, "The Boxer" entered regular rotation on radio stations including Washington, DC's DC101 (WWDC 101.1 FM). In May 2002, the band members gave up their day jobs in order to dedicate more time to the band and touring. The hidden bonus track "Dear" from their Echo Echo CD was originally written to play over the closing credits and on the soundtrack of the Kevin Hershberger civil war film Wicked Spring. Barry Privett also starred in the film. In September 2002, Carbon Leaf won the Pontiac Vibe Summer Sound Off resulting in "The Boxer" being played in Pontiac Vibe commercials on MTV and VH1.

In January 2003 Carbon Leaf gave permission for fan-made recordings of their concerts to be included in the Live Music Archive, a part of the Internet Archive. Various concerts are available from 2000 to present in lossless formats SHN or FLAC and the lossy format VBR MP3, with the majority coming from the years 2002-2004. 5 Alive!, Carbon Leaf's first live album, was released in the summer of 2003. The album was recorded over five concerts during the autumn and winter of 2002 and its track list is assembled to match a concert playlist.

2004–2010: The Vanguard Records years

In Spring 2004, Carbon Leaf signed with Vanguard Records, part of the Welk Music Group and in July of that year released their album, Indian Summer. "Life Less Ordinary" rose to number 5 on the Adult Album Alternative charts and 29 on the Hot AC Charts. Carbon Leaf performed "Life Less Ordinary" on the November 30, 2004 episode of The Dr. Phil Show. "What About Everything?" rose to 25 on the AAA charts. Indian Summer has been ranked in the top 10 by KMTT in Seattle, and number 40 out of the Top 50 Albums of 2004 by WXPN in Philadelphia. The album was produced by John Morand and David Lowery. The video for "Life Less Ordinary" debuted on January 5, 2005.

In June 2006, an interview with Carbon Leaf guitarist Terry Clark was chosen as the cover feature for the inaugural issue of The Green Room magazine. On September 12, 2006, the band released Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat. According to their blog, it was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee, and mixed in collaboration with producer Peter Collins and Trina Shoemaker. The title track was featured in the October 30, 2006, episode of ABC's What About Brian. Tom McCormack began touring with Carbon Leaf, playing keys and accordion.

Carbon Leaf played at Sudflood 2007, and dedicated their performance to the memory of the lives lost in the Virginia Tech shootings. All proceeds went towards the memorial fund for the victims and their families.

In August 2007, Scott Milstead was replaced by Jason Neal on drums. In August 2008, Jordan Medas left the band to pursue a teaching career. He was replaced in October 2008 by Jon Markel.

The band released their seventh studio album, Nothing Rhymes with Woman, on May 19, 2009. On June 30, 2009 Carbon Leaf was the featured band at Red Rocks' Film On The Rocks.

The producers of Curious George 2: Follow That Monkey! were using an acoustic version of "Life Less Ordinary" as a placeholder in the film. The request to license it snowballed into wanting to license additional songs and ultimately a request that Carbon Leaf do the majority of the soundtrack. Carbon Leaf contributed several songs to the soundtrack for the animated film, including versions of "Life Less Ordinary" and "Let Your Troubles Roll By" with new lyrics and "The Friendship Song". The soundtrack, and the direct-to-DVD movie, was released on March 2, 2010.

Carbon Leaf has played with many acts, including Dave Matthews Band, Something Corporate, O.A.R., and David Gray, and have toured with Jason Mraz, Blues Traveler, Great Big Sea, Jump, Little Children, Matt Nathanson, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, The Avett Brothers, Guster, and Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers.

In January 2006, Carbon Leaf was one of the bands to join Sister Hazel's floating Music festival The Rock Boat. They have also performed on The Rock Boat 2007, Ships & Dip hosted by The Barenaked Ladies in 2008, The Rock Boat in 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013.

2010–present: Return to indie status

The band announced in a radio interview on WCNR on March 20, 2010 that they were amicably parting with their label, Vanguard Records, with the intent to record and release music on their own schedule by embracing the lack of distribution and use the internet to get their music out. Barry Privett said, "I don't know if the label knows or not, but we're leaving the label." He continued by saying, "As of this point, we're going to be an independent band again. We're tired of waiting ... two years to make a record and then, you know, waiting for six months for a setup and then, you know, having it be fully dependent on a label's schedule." They explained that they may be smaller projects but there will be more of them. They want to use giving away some of their music at shows as a marketing tool to develop larger, long term sales as their fan base grows. They put the proposal to Vanguard for Nothing Rhymes with Woman, but it was rejected because Vanguard's priority is CD sales. On July 6, 2010, they released How the West was One, the first of their albums since returning to indie status. The album, inspired by and written during their touring the American West, was initially released directly by the band for sale on their website and was subsequently made available from iTunes and Amazon.com. Their ninth studio album and third of 2010, a collection of original Christmas and winter themed songs titled Christmas Child, was released on November 16. Barry Privett described the songs as "encompassing both the joy and melancholy of the season."

A second live album and DVD was recorded in January 2010. As of July 2010, the band was going through the footage and mixing of the audio. The 3-disc set was expected to be released in early 2011 and that a new album would follow in the spring of 2011. Live, Acoustic...And In Cinemascope! was released on May 3, 2011.

In February 2013, the band independently released Ghost Dragon Attacks Castle.

On June 18, 2013, Carbon Leaf launched a crowdfunding effort to support their next studio album. The crowdfunding effort was launched on PledgeMusic, and reached 50% of the goal inside of 24 hours with the 100% mark being reached on July 9. The album, Constellation Prize, was released digitally through their website on October 1, 2013 with plans to release a physical CD around the middle of the month.

On August 9, 2014, Carbon Leaf released Indian Summer Revisited, a 10th anniversary re-recording of their 2004 album. As with their previous album, it was supported via a crowdfunding campaign on PledgeMusic. While the band does not own the master recordings from the 2004 album they do own the songs.

Awards