Tea Leaf Green
Tea Leaf Green
Taught To Be Proud
(Reincarnate)
Jammy-award upstarts Tea Leaf Green meld downer reborn-speak with toe-tapping, hemp grooves.
Tinkling and soloing through the first three tunes on the 11-song Taught To Be Proud, it’s easy to get mired in the overtones. Words like “reborn,” “promised land,” and “rapture” roll off the tongues of Trevor Garrod, Josh Clark, and Ben Chambers with conspicuous regularity, setting a stern counterpoint to the street festival soundtrack. While the message, aptly, is an alluring one of confusion and internal strife (“I’m not what I’ve become”), Tea Leaf Green shoot themselves in the foot track-in, track-out by pulling back on the musical accompaniment. Vocal arrangements are thin and unimaginative while Clark’s guitar pushes tepid solo after solo because that’s what jam bands do. Sun shines a smidgen on the mandolin-aided “I’ve Been Seeking,” but it’s the exception that proves the rule.
— Kevin Keegan
Appearing: June 3rd at Park West in Chicago.
