Tea Leaf Green: Album Review

by Dewey Hammond

This review of Tea Leaf Green's album Living in Between originally appeared in Relix magazine in its April/May 2004 issue.

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Keyboardist Trevor Garrod has embraced his role as primary songwriter and lyricist, and the results are noticeably more existential -- check out “Earth and Sky” and “Las Vegas” -- than the band’s humorous tongue-in-cheek tales. At times, the usually fiery guitar of Josh Clark sounds restrained and the lyrical pacing of Garrod perhaps a bit forced, though the exclamatory “Garden II” closes out the album in fine form. Any band should expect to take a stumble or two during its evolution, and Clark, Garrod and Co. are no different.

Tea Leaf Green finds itself at a crossroads between regional notoriety and a semblance of national recognition, but the band will have to continue relying on constant touring and feverish live performances to make a name for itself, regardless of the quality of its studio efforts. For the record: The latest from this San Francisco rock quartet feels like a visit to an old friend that’s changed ever so slightly. No better, no worse -- just different. And given the band’s fear of stagnancy, I’m sure the boys would take this as a compliment.