“I told you, we are getting old,” laughed Barry Privett of Carbon Leaf, joking with fans only a few tunes into their set. He pretended like the band was going to have just one more song and head back to Richmond because of the flash flood threat outside. “Concerts are shorter. You have to drink faster, sing louder, and dance more. And tickets are twice as much, with shows half as long.”
The backdrop of a dark and stormy night made the warmth of music and dancing at The Hamilton with Carbon Leaf that much more special. The Virginia-natives who still have all the youth that they started the band with, hadn’t even made it through more than a few songs when Privett had to lead everyone in the proper storm response: an unplugged singalong.
The band gathered everyone together, for a moving performance of “One Prairie Outpost” that was its own force of nature.
Some fans sang along, while others were awestruck by the intimacy. If you were on the dancefloor, you were so close to the band, it felt like you were getting a song dedicated directly to you. This is just one of the powers of Carbon Leaf: harnessing nostalgia, and harmonizing novelty.
Aside from making music for more than 22 years, and recording more than a dozen original albums– they are now developing themselves as artists in new ways, revisiting and renewing as they go.
Just this past weekend, the band finished up a busy schedule at the Cleveland Irish Festival. And they have a huge U.S. tour coming up this fall after a few more Irish festivals. Between it all, they are recording new tunes and re-recording past works. Last year, they finished Indian Summer Revisited, and are releasing Love Loss Hope Repeat Reneaux this Friday.
“We are not just re-recording the record, we are re-imagining it,” Terry Clark, Carbon Leaf guitarist, shared with theMUES. With his signature long hair and hearty laugh, Clark is one of the founding members.
Love Loss Hope Repeat was one of the band’s celebrated albums, originally released in 2006. Still, collectively, the band felt like they were hurried by their record label and producer, and felt like they missed the mark the first time around.
“We stepped it back to where we felt the songs should be, as far as having an organic, rootsy sort of vibe to it,” said Clark. They wanted to give the record the authentic Carbon Leaf treatment, according to their crowdfunding promotions. Fans from all over helped them revisit these past works.
Still, there’s no word if Katy Perry will revisit her starring role in another music video for them (remember she was in “Learn to Fly”?).
But not everything in the past gets a wistful look back. Clark remembers having to drive around their hometown, stapling show posters on telephone poles, avoiding getting hit by cars. It was tireless footwork just to start to get their music out there.
Now, they embrace social technology like Periscope, Facebook, and Twitter to connect with fans, take requests, and promote what’s new with Carbon Leaf to what’s grown to be a global audience.
Carbon Leaf won’t be back in our area again until December, when you’ll have the chance to see them at The Birchmere in Virginia.
Until then, check out the Carbon Leaf video theMUES created, highlighting our interviews with Barry Privett and Terry Clark, when Carbon Leaf’s performance on that rainy night refreshed our assurance that the band was still weathering a life less ordinary.
Blog by Cristina Rayas, Photos by Toby Mues
VIDEO: Produced by Cristina Rayas, Shot & Edited by Toby Mues