Carbon Leaf

Thanks Randolph-Macon College! It’s hard to believe that it’s been 25 years since Carbon Leaf first got together in Blackwell Auditorium!

Sound check at Higher Ground.

Hitting the road to Burlington, VT... See you tonight at Higher Ground! Freddy & Francine open the show. Tickets: bit.ly/CL2018_HigherGround

Let’s do this New England... See you at Port City Music Hall tonight! Freddy & Francine open the show. Tickets: bit.ly/CL2018_PortCity

Happy Birthday to our fearless leader Barry Privett! Come help him celebrate tonight at Infinity Music Hall and Bistro in Norfolk, CT! Tix: bit.ly/CL2018_Infinity

Carter is working hard on his Christmas beard and expects to see all of you at The National in #RVA on December 15! @Liz Longley opens the show... Tickets: bit.ly/CL2018_National

It's almost time for our annual Annapolis weekend, December 7 - 9! We're doing 4 Rams Head On Stage shows this year with evening shows on December 7 & 8 and matinee shows on Dec. 8 & 9. There are only a few tickets left for the evening shows and tickets for the matinees are going fast... get them while you can! Tickets: http://bit.ly/CL2018_RamsHead

Can any of our Hampton / Norfolk / VA Beach friends help out Imagination Movers?

The weatherman just called and promised that it's going to be warm and sunny on Friday, November 30 when we return to Derry, NH for our annual holiday show at Tupelo Music Hall. See you there! Tickets: bit.ly/CL2018_Tupelo

Come join us at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia on Saturday, December 1 with special guest Emma Hern. It's going to be a slam dunk! Tickets: bit.ly/CL2018_WorldCafe

Connecticut - we're excited to return to StageOne at Fairfield Theatre Company on Thursday, November 29. Spread the word and we'll see you there! Tickets: bit.ly/CL2018_Fairfield

Let’s do this Boston! See you tonight at The Sinclair in Cambridge... 7:00 Doors 8:00 Emma Hern 9:00 CL ‪bit.ly/CL2018_Sinclair‬

Hey NYC! It’s officially Carbon Leaf Friday! See you tonight at The Gramercy Theatre!‬ ‪7:00 Doors‬ ‪8:00 Emma Hern‬ ‪9:00 CL‬

Tickets so cheap… it's SCARY! 😱 Use code "SCARE" for $10.31 tickets to our show at The Gramercy Theatre this Friday - limited quantities only, while they last 'til 10PM!🎃 Tix: bit.ly/CL2018_Gramercy

You know what's scary? December is just around the corner!! Get your tickets for our annual shows at The Birchmere while you still can! December 13 & 14 with Liz Longley opening... Tickets & Info: bit.ly/CL2018_Birchmere

Hey Vermont! On November 17 we are returning to Higher Ground in Burlington to celebrate Barry's birthday weekend (and to play a show at one of our favorite venues)! Freddy & Francine open the show... Tickets: bit.ly/CL2018_HigherGround

We're headed back to Port City Music Hall in Portland, ME on Friday, November 16. Come out and help us celebrate Barry's birthday weekend! Freddy & Francine are opening the show. Tickets: bit.ly/CL2018_PortCity

Carbon Leaf's cover photo

All of the shows from our 25th Anniversary Tour are now available for download in our new store!

It's been a few years since we last visited Norfolk, CT, so we're super excited to return to Infinity Music Hall and Bistro on Thursday, November 15!! See you soon Connecticut! Tickets: bit.ly/CL2018_Infinity

Yo Boston! We're headed up to The Sinclair in Cambridge next week! Come help us celebrate the Red Sox winning the World Series! Tickets: bit.ly/CL2018_Sinclair

Hey New York City - See you next week at The Gramercy Theatre! Emma Hern opens the show... Get your tickets here: bit.ly/CL2018_Gramercy

NOWHERE, U.S.A. I just returned to Virginia with the White Whale. The country never gets old. The breakdowns do. I call it, bored with problems. This year has been as trying as any we’ve had. Happy Anniversary. We managed to make it to every show (ok, domestically). The performance, production and spirit remains where it should be and the shows have hit their mark and we have hopefully made the connections we seek. Alas, we had to leave Europe behind to shepherd our strays. These things come in waves...a good year, a bad year. It is what it is and you anticipate accordingly. Eyes on the horizon, but sail as if you’re going to sink. We are supposed to be invading Europe right now. Instead, I flew out to El Paso last Friday to pick up the White Whale from Doggett Freightliner, and started making the drive back to Virginia, giving the fresh new engine the road test it needs without the pressure of spanning 7-13 hours of terrain between outposts each night. As the service manager warned, there will likely be some ‘teething problems’ to address while breaking in the new engine. He was correct. Threading the rural, agricultural plains of west Texas, New Mexico and the long, stark, beautifully stretched rectangle of Kansas was a pleasant, laconic, drama free ride. I took this route instead of the southerly route back through Texas and north. This was a risky (dumb) decision, as I was days away from any substantial help. I knew this, but I wanted to take the route anyway. The only oases along this route for 2 days were the predictably spartan outcrop towns that take about 90 seconds to travel through - cattle, feed, seed, crops and grain elevators, 3-pump service stations, some boarded up businesses and an occasional roadside motel. Union Pacific running parallel. It’s a route shockingly, refreshingly, devoid of fast food chains, big block stores or any real recognizable sign that you’re in the America most of us assume is right around the corner. It’s a stark reminder of the contrasts in means and living, in space and convenience. It's still at once awe inspiring, daunting, intimidating, liberating and lonely. One midnight, just east of the Mississippi River, 30 miles outside St Louis, the teething problems began, and I notice the voltage meter quietly starting to drop. Also my heart. 13.5V...13…12…12.3…11.5…11.1…10…I’m already bored. I know where this is going. The alternator is failing. I’m in awe the engine still runs on 9.5 volts! But that train is never late, and at 9 volts the engine shutters, downshifts to 2nd gear and the Engine Protect light glows up yellow from the dark side of the dashboard where only lights hum to life if something is very wrong. Luck is on my side. Love’s Truck and Service Center is just up ahead - they are great - and I limp at 25 mph with the hazards on towards the exit. This Love’s sits between two far-as-the-eye-can-see cornfields. I like it. I head to the end of the lot, offering a gorgeous view of black to one side, and a long line of steel wheels and chrome, blurry and diffuse under the lot lights. I scratch my name first on the clipboard for sunrise service and count my blessings for the night. The new alternator is in place by mid afternoon. The day after that yields a coolant leak. All of it. Some hours pass, and we think we fix it and I’m off. We do not fix it, and after 10 miles down the road I am not off. The block heater plug shoots out like a cannon POW! from the engine block and 8 gallons of coolant streams from under the carriage in a white hot misty plum behind me like a crop duster spraying the fields, or rather, the outcrop of vehicles in my rear view mirror. I wait for roadside assistance and in another 24 boring hours I am up and running, Smooth sailing the next few days back to Virginia. WE’LL ALWAYS HAVE PARIS Now, on a crisp fall Sunday, on the eve of what was to be our big Paris show, we are heading instead to our studio, Two-Car. Jesse, our percussionist, just flew in from Boston, and we are getting the still-not-quite-remodeled-from-the-flood space into enough shape to work on new ideas for 6 intense days of songwriting, noodling, sketching, plucking, beating, riffing and rocking. Our thanks and apologies to our European fans and to those of you stateside who made the trip over. We are sorry we can’t be there, but it is time to wash down all that engine oil with some fresh squeezed lemonade. au revoir! Barry https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10156810043914837&type=1&l=2de0276f1e

Reminder that the deadline to register to vote in the 2018 General Election in Virginia is TOMORROW! https://www.elections.virginia.gov/voter-outreach/

Carbon Leaf's cover photo