San Francisco-based jam band
Tea Leaf Green got their start in the relationship between guitarist
Josh Clark and drummer
Scott Rager, who played in a high-school band together in Arcadia, CA. After graduation,
Rager enrolled at San Francisco State College, where he met bassist
Ben Chambers. When
Clark moved to San Francisco, the three began playing together as a trio. Their first paying gig was attended by
Trevor Garrod, a singer/songwriter and keyboard player who had moved to San Francisco looking for other musicians to play with.
Garrod met the three others, and soon they were playing together as a quartet. They built a following in Northern California and self-released the albums Tea Leaf Green,
Midnight on the Reservoir (2001), Friday June 6, 2003: Live at Slim's, San Francisco CA (September 17, 2003),
Living in Between (February 7, 2004), and Live at the Independent (2004). Eventually, they extended their touring nationwide, including a performance at the Bonnaroo Festival in 2005.
Signing to Reincarnate Music, they issued their first national release,
Taught to Be Proud, on November 15, 2005, as they played shows opening for
Gov't Mule and
Trey Anastasio. On May 19, 2006, they appeared at the Fox Theater in Boulder, CO, and the show was filmed for a home video. It was issued by SCI Fidelity Records on October 31, 2006, as
Rock 'n' Roll Band, both as a separately released CD and DVD. Further touring found
Tea Leaf Green opening for
Dave Matthews Band and
Bruce Hornsby, as well as headlining on their own.
Chambers left the band in November 2007 and was replaced by
Reed Mathis, formerly of
Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey. In 2008, a move to Surfdog Records led to the re-release of the first three studio albums, Tea Leaf Green,
Midnight on the Reservoir, and
Living in Between, as the triple-CD compilation
Seeds on April 22, 2008. Surfdog reissued
Taught to Be Proud with bonus tracks on June 3, 2008, and released a new
Tea Leaf Green studio album,
Raise Up the Tent, on July 22, 2008. ~ William Ruhlmann