Carbon Leaf

Few bands from Richmond, Virginia have kept going as consistently as Carbon Leaf, a quintet whose music blends alt-country, Celtic influences and folk-infused indie rock. The group took shape at Randolph-Macon College in 1992, rehearsing in a campus auditorium before playing backyard parties and fraternity gatherings. Line-up changes have come and gone over the decades, but founding members Barry Privett, Carter Gravatt and Terry Clark remain at the core, alongside Jon Markel and Jesse Humphrey.

The breakthrough came with Echo Echo in 2001, whose opening track, The Boxer, won the first Coca-Cola New Music Award at the American Music Awards in January 2002. The prize earned the band a slot performing on the broadcast, making them the first unsigned act to play the show, and the song then entered radio rotation, including on DC101 in Washington. In 2004 they signed with Vanguard Records for Indian Summer, which yielded Life Less Ordinary, a number five on the Adult Album Alternative chart. Their later work includes the 2009 album Nothing Rhymes with Woman and six songs on the soundtrack to Curious George 2: Follow That Monkey!, released in March 2010.