Carbon Leaf spent much of the last decade accumulating something rarer than sales figures — a live resume that now exceeds 3,500 performances — while the studio calendar sat largely quiet. Time is the Playground, their fifteenth album and first full-length in ten years, gives that accumulated patience a destination, and the I WANT TO BE LEAF Tour 2026 brings it to Higher Ground’s Ballroom on a Friday the 13th that suits a band that has always operated on its own schedule.
About the Show
That decade of studio quiet obscures how continuously Carbon Leaf has worked. The Richmond, Virginia band, anchored by founding members Barry Privett (vocals) and Terry Clark (guitar) alongside co-founder Carter Gravatt (multi-instrumentalist), Jon Markel (bass), and Jesse Humphrey (drums), has been on the road since 1992, when they formed as a college cover band and simply never stopped. What they’re bringing to Higher Ground is the culmination of fifteen years of accumulated compositions, shaped into what the band calls “both a call to action and an embrace of the moment,” marrying nostalgic storytelling to nuanced, folk-infused indie rock across 12 tracks. The band frames it as a “rumination on time, love and personal growth that’s equal parts urgent epiphany and contented exhalation.”
The origin story worth knowing: a song called “The Boxer” won the American Music Awards 2002 New Music Award and made Carbon Leaf the first unsigned band to perform at the AMAs. It was the kind of recognition that typically converts a band into a major-label concern; three charting albums for Vanguard Records followed before they returned to the independent footing that built them, recording at Two-Car Studio (Terry Clark’s converted garage) under their own Constant Ivy imprint. Time is the Playground is the fullest expression of that restored autonomy: their label, their studio, released on no one else’s schedule.
Venue & Logistics
Higher Ground’s Ballroom in South Burlington sits just over the Vermont border from the north-country region, a room that holds 750 — the right scale for a band whose sets, per show listings, draw from “some of the most memorable songs” alongside newer material. Doors at 7:30 p.m., show at 8:00 p.m. All ages.
Tickets
Tickets are $30–$35. Buy tickets