For up-and-coming bands, to have an ambitious, resourceful, hard-working manager in your corner can make all the difference. R.E.M. thought enough of theirs at one time to include Jefferson Holt in a song ("Jefferson, I think we're lost," from "Little America"). As for bands operating without the benefit of management, sometimes the occasional perfect storm of timing and luck can compensate nicely.

After forming as friends at Randolph-Macon College in 1992 and cutting their performing teeth playing at various social functions, the members of Carbon Leaf relocated to Richmond with plans to see how far the group might go.

"It took us a while to get everybody out of school and when we did, we kind of realized that, you know, why don't we just try this, since we're young and don't want to get a real job?" said singer/instrumentalist Barry Privett, speaking as he left a Richmond band rehearsal.

"Although this is harder work than any job I could probably get otherwise," he added, laughing.

The band went through lineup changes while releasing several albums in the late Nineties, beginning with 1995's "Meander." At the turn of the century they issued the long-player "Echo Echo", which contained music that would change the band's fortunes in a startling, unforeseeable chain of events.

According to Privett, the band received an e-mail in mid-2001 regarding something called the Coca-Cola New Music Award, which was a new contest for unsigned bands.

"All you had to do was upload three songs and fill out a little form. Took us about five minutes and that was it. And then, about a month later, we got an e-mail saying we'd been narrowed down to, like, a thousand contestants – I don't know. And then we got another follow-up letter saying we had made the top fifty, and then after that we got a letter saying we had made the top ten - come to New York and compete. And that all happened very quickly, within a couple of months' time."

The band won the contest, through which they were able to perform their song "The Boxer" live on the American Music Awards. With that TV appearance sparking radio airplay for "The Boxer", Carbon Leaf hit the road for further shows in support of the "Echo Echo" album and made the decision to finally quit their day jobs. The following year they won the Pontiac Vibe Summer Sound Off contest, which led to "The Boxer" being featured in Pontiac TV commercials, and yet another contest brought the band a $20,000 prize that was used for the recording of their 2004 album, "Indian Summer."

While the contest success did finally attract management interest and a deal with Vanguard Records, the band had no one but themselves to pat on the back for everything up to that point.

"Carbon Leaf's been together for fifteen years, and for the first nine of it we couldn't buy help," said Privett. "We were the band that we did everything. I did the booking and the management, and on Thursdays and Friday nights we'd go to the Bottom and we'd put flyers on the telephone poles, back in the day when you could get away with it.

 "We didn't have a publicist, we didn't have a lawyer, and obviously we didn't have a label. We had to do everything, and that's how we learned to do everything. And then when the Internet came along it was like, alright, let's just fish for what we can, and this was before the social networking. Get it any way you can."

Carbon Leaf is presently writing songs for the follow-up album to 2006's "Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat." After whittling an anticipated 30 to 40 tunes down to a dozen finished tracks, they're shooting for a February 2009 release date. With a new album will come new touring, which will likely include performing a number of fan favorites. After all of the new and renewed interest that developed from the contests back around the time of "Echo Echo", might Privet and his pals be growing a bit tired of playing "The Boxer"?

"I basically don't want to play any song to an empty room," said Privett, "so as long as people are there and you're making the connection. Being sick of your songs is what I would call a good problem to have. I mean, if you're that sick of them that means you're playing them out a lot and you've been doing it for a long time. As long as people are on the other end, that's why you go out and perform.

"We wrote the songs, we know how they go. I don't need to sit there and play it every night to myself. The point is to play it out and feed off of that energy from other people. That's what you look forward to. Truthfully."

Carbon Leaf with Moossa at Friday Cheers

When: Friday, May 16, 6:30 p.m.

Where: Brown's Island; main entrance at 7th and Tredegar Streets

Cost: Free

Details: www.venturerichmond.com or (804) 788-6466