Tonight: Leify Green Conspiracy Heats Up the Glass Grill

Leif Huber picked up guitar as a teenager and began writing his own material rather quickly. He tinkered with songwriting in high school, played on the street for money while traveling post-high school, and led and joined and broke up bands throughout college at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

But it wasn't until the past six months or so, setting aside grad school to focus on music, that Huber considered himself a professional.

Huber, 23, was given the nickname Leify Green by his mother, which not only stuck but became the basis for his stage name.

The Leify Green Conspiracy, fronted by Huber, will perform at the Glass Grill on Eastern Avenue on Friday, Feb. 4.

"I'm getting used to the idea that I'm a professional," he said during a trip back from a gig in Connecticut in late January. "It's still a new concept for me."

Living in Derwood, Huber has played every week recently, hitting venues throughout the Baltimore area as well as in other states.

"I've always taken my music seriously, but now I have to take myself seriously," he added. "It's a new attitude."

However, he's serious about studying economics, too — just not yet. A similar gap between schooling came after his freshman year at UMBC.

"I was kind of rootless," he said. He stayed with his sister for a while and figured if he were going to live that way — mooching off people — he might as well do it in style.

Guitar in tow, he used the $300 he had saved and bought the cheapest airplane ticket to California that he could find (with a little help from his uncle who worked for an airline).

With no particular travel plans, he'd play guitar on the street during the days as he worked his way up California and into Oregon by bus. This was the first time he sang so many originals, in part because of the good response he was receiving but also because he was surrounded by new people and places.

“There was a lot of inspiration,” he said.

His mother made him promise he wouldn't hitchhike, "which kind of limited me," he said, leaving him virtually no money for motels.

A few days into his trip, he was planning on staying with people he'd just met in Santa Cruz, but when he looked for them later that night, they weren't where they said they'd be. He was alone, it was dark; thus began his first night sleeping outside.

"I kind of cuddled up with my guitar," he said, "and slept with a knife under my pillow."

This began about three weeks of urban camping — and the basis for many of his first songs written on guitar.

“Scared” tells of his first night sleeping on the street:

Have you ever felt the sky

 Shining down into your eyes?

Have you ever seen a trillion stars

And known just who you are?

Have you ever found a world

You never knew was there?

Have you ever been scared?

He returned to UMBC more confident about his music and played chiefly in the band Mother Nature's Son.

A couple years later, he studied abroad in Peru, where he continued to play guitar but not on the street for money. Instead, he sang for families and small communities and other students when he wasn't working building small houses.

Back in Maryland, he's played solo acoustic and with band gigs at various venues. He hit the Recher Theater and the Brass Monkey in Baltimore, as well as Jammin' Java in Northern Virginia. He's played the Glass Grill as a solo artist and with the full Conspiracy band. With invitations to play in other states, he's thinking he'll be on the road full-time or at least part-time soon.

His first album, Give Me A Push, was released in late 2010 and showcases the talents of the Leify Green Conspiracy, which just keeps growing in members.

"It's hard to say what it's gonna be in a month from now, because it's always changing," Huber said, noting that he formed the Leify Green Trio a few years ago and this new, bigger band, in a sense, is an offspring of that.

Its current lineup includes Luke Solomon on bass, Yerodin Sanders on percussion and vocals, Trey Kulp on percussion and Zan McLeod on guitar and mandolin. Guitarist John Lawton, who joined Huber in Connecticut, is a possible new member of the band.

"The Conspiracy is a loose term for anyone involved," Huber said. "Even the fans are in it, in a way. You can't have a show without an audience."

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INFORMATION:

Glass Grill

6804 Eastern Ave., Baltimore

410-633-2921

info@theglassgrill.com

theglassgrill.com

Leify Green Conspiracy

8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 4