Carbon Leaf’s New Project

Carbon Leaf, the Richmond, Virginia based band I’ve been a fan of since my days at the University of Richmond in the 90s, is running a Kickstarter for their next album, their first “full-length album in 7 years,” and several other projects, including an EP, a live album, and a Blu-Ray of the live performance.

There’s a little less than a week to go in the Kickstarter, and over the time since it launched around Memorial Day I’ve modified my pledge twice, starting with an autographed CD, upping the pledge to the Blu-Ray level, and finally springing for membership in the Crow’s Foot & Key Society, which is for “super fans” according to the Kickstarter page. I had to run the sums and see if the higher tiers were something I could swing — and I could, thanks to a “bonus” at work (ie., a vacation cash out, which is the only sort of “bonus” beyond salary one sees at Diamond) — but it also required careful thought.

The Kickstarter project is called “Carbon Leaf’s 21st Recording,” and in late May, when the project launched, I had to think: “Is that actually right? How many Carbon Leaf albums do I have?” Because it’s a lot.

The list!

Meander
Shadows in the Banquet Hall
Ether Electrified Porch Music
Echo Echo
From Godwin to Scotland (the rare live album)
5 Alive!
Indian Summer
Love Loss Hope Repeat
Nothing Rhymes With Woman
How the West Was One
Christmas Child
Live, Acoustic… and in Cinemascope!
Ghost Dragon Attacks Castle
Constellation Prize
Indian Summer Revisited
Love Loss Hope Repeat Reneaux
Nothing Rhymes With Woman 2016
Gathering, Volume 1

That’s eighteen. If you add the EP, The Cottage Songs (the live album and Blu-Ray), that brings me up to 20. The new album, then, is the 21st.

Math, good!

But that’s not everything I have.

I’m going to leave aside three compilation albums that have Carbon Leaf songs — Radio Redeye, and the two volumes of Celtic Pink Ribbon — and The Noisetrade Sampler.

Also in my collection:

American Tale EP (an mp3.com release that’s degraded since CD-Rs don’t last forever)
Curious George 2: Follow That Monkey soundtrack
Easy to Love (a promo single with Richmond artist Regan to promote the Richmond area)
iTunes EP (an exclusive iTunes release circa Indian Summer)
iCovers 1.4 (another exclusive iTunes release also circa Indian Summer)

Plus some odds and ends like “Barbecue” and “Carter’s Christmas Beard.”

Looking through my Carbon Leaf directory on my hard drive, I don’t believe I’ve missed anything significant.

After typing all of that out, perhaps I should be a member of the “super fan” Crow’s Foot & Key Society after all. 🙂

It’s been a while since the last Carbon Leaf release — Gathering Volume 1, which came out shortly after I saw the band in Lynchburg two years ago — and seeing them in downtown Baltimore in late February, pre-COVID, feels like a lifetime ago. I’m looking forward to seeing what they have cooked up, and I’m happy to be a part of it, in whatever small way, by backing the Kickstarter.

Published by Allyn Gibson

A writer, editor, journalist, sometimes coder, occasional historian, and all-around scholar, Allyn Gibson is the writer for Diamond Comic Distributors' monthly PREVIEWS catalog, used by comic book shops and throughout the comics industry, and the editor for its monthly order forms. In his over ten years in the industry, Allyn has interviewed comics creators and pop culture celebrities, covered conventions, analyzed industry revenue trends, and written copy for comics, toys, and other pop culture merchandise. Allyn is also known for his short fiction (including the Star Trek story "Make-Believe,"the Doctor Who short story "The Spindle of Necessity," and the ReDeus story "The Ginger Kid"). Allyn has been blogging regularly with WordPress since 2004.

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