Let Your Troubles Roll By...

If you haven't heard of Carbon Leaf, run...or surf pretty darn quickly over to http://www.carbonleaf.com.

Check out this great Virginia-based band. You'll thank me. Their recorded music is great. Their live shows are even better.

This weekend's performance at the Sheffield Garden Walk in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood (smack in the middle of the DePaul University Campus) was the third time I have seen them in 16 months, including a really fabulous show at the Beachland Ballroom on St. Paddy's Day. Ty turned me (and Spice and Karen) onto them, and they have rapidly become one of my favorite bands.

Seeing them at the festival was the main reason our little quartet made the 5.5-hour trek to the Windy City early Saturday a.m. Why miss a show when it wasn't all THAT far away?

While the skies kept threatening to dump rain on us (like the kind we encountered for a good hour along the Indiana Turnpike -- kudos to Spice and her fine driving!), the weather cooperated the entire day. We got to the festival early, got some beverages and milled about until the prior act left the stage. We then headed over to the stage to stake out our spots. No one was there -- so we nabbed front row...much to all of our delight.

As we were standing there killing time, Ty gripped my arm. Hard.

"It's Barry (Privett, the lead singer) ," she cried and pointed to an attractive guy witha modest short haircut wearing a polo shirt. He was setting up the merchandise table.

"Naw...that's not Barry," I said...always the skeptic. "Barry wouldn't cut his hair." But she was right. It was Barry. And Barry did cut his hair.

So began the giddy, immature excitement of being up close to one of our favorite groups of musicians.

We got a lot of great photos from the set, and I'll confess I'm breaking my blog rules big time on this...not only posting after the fact but also posting photos from my regular camera vs. my crappy cameraphone. I can't help it. The cameraphone did not do this event justice. Not one bit.