Catch Of The Week: Adam Ezra
Meet Adam Ezra from Boston
Even if you’ve never heard Adam Ezra, you’ve likely heard of Adam Ezra. His live shows are legendary in New England. Adam and his band, The Adam Ezra Group have been performing for nearly 20 years. They’ve performed all the iconic Boston venues and have become a national touring act, playing storied destinations from LA to New York. Adam’s reputation as an intensely magnetic entertainer precedes him, and the relationship he has with his audience is renowned. Ezra is known to engage his fans at every turn and make them part of his shows.
Adam Ezra is truly an artist who encompasses his passion and talents for singing, songwriting, performing, and creating. But before it all gets too serious, keep in mind, this artist has a sense of humor. There’s life, love, depth and humor in his songs. If you’ve never heard his song “The Devil Came Up To Boston,” or seen the video. Watch it. The Boston in you will embrace it instantly. You will feel the need to share it. This is a man who has spent time in Kosovo with the troops and UN peacekeeper working as a volunteer on relief efforts there. He has shared stages with everyone from Willie Nelson to Jason Mraz, John Hiatt, Little Feat, and written and performed with John Oates. Adam is a well rounded, seasoned, passionate artist with a true gift for writing and presenting his words. The consummate show and tell man.
Enter: Ezra
Adam recently visited our Country 1025 studios to share some original tunes.
Find out why Adam is so passionate about “Steal Your Daughter”
Adam collaborated with a well known Nashville songwriter for the brilliant, “Switching To Whiskey”
Know Him From Adam
- Born in upstate New York, but grew up in Wayland, Mass.
- Considers himself a folk musician and songwriter
- Adam’s mother was a huge musical influence, she is also a folk musician and she directs the Greater Boston Intergenerational Chorus
- Played drums in high school, but claims “I was a terrible drum player, so picked up the guitar
- Attended Colgate University, then traveled around the world, including trips to Venezuela, South Africa and Canada. On these trips Adam committed himself to the guitar and songwriting
- Has won multiple New England Music Awards for Song of the Year, Album of the Year, and Band of the Year
- In 2016 Adam appeared at the Tribeca Film Festival for his debut in movie scoring, and the release of his album, “Songs for a Movie.”
- Adam’s 2017 album, Hurricane Wind, featured collaborations with John Oates (Hall and Oates) and engaged his fans by making them part of the process- picking songs, following the arrangement process, artwork and even naming the project
- Adam won the grand prize of a national competition with Pick The Band, and his band was signed to a deal with independent record label Royal Avenue Music
Q & Adam:
- What lead you to music: Man, in a lot of ways I can answer this one! I guess music has always been the thing that connected the most powerfully with me. When i began playing the guitar and writing songs, they in turn felt like they were coming from the most honest, real parts of myself. at that point I decided there was nothing else to do but dive in!
- How old when you started: I’ve been connected with music my whole life, learned a few chords on the guitar in high school, but didn’t really start teaching myself to play and write until I was well into college, playing lacrosse and studying environmental geography. as soon as I became serious about playing, everything else kinda slipped into the background for me
- Instruments played: I’m really just a singer and guitar player, but I like to make noise on all sorts of things on stage, including drums, harmonica, and I’m even starting to make myself have the courage to plunk out some stuff on the piano these days!
- How would you describe your sound: Another tricky question!! Man, these days I just don’t know how to pigeon hole our sound in a way that makes it easy for someone to guess what we sound like from a description. The spirit of my music comes from folk. honest writing…story telling…making an effort to put our culture and place in history into song…attempting to bring communities together through music . People have called us rock, country, Americana, roots…you name it. Maybe outlaw folk is a fun way to think about it. 🙂
- Who inspires you: Bruce Springsteen, Pete Seeger, Ani Difranco, Merle Haggard, Nelson Mandela, teachers, soldiers, and people who are not afraid to engage in activism and question their leaders
- If you are a band, how did you get your name: Easy one: started playing on my own and when I started playing with others I couldn’t for the life of me come up with a good band name. Adam Ezra Group: about as boring as you can possibly get! You’d think as a writer I could do better, right? Nope
- Awards/accolades: We’ve were awarded Band of the Year at the New England Music Awards, as well as Song of the Year a couple times, and their Grassroots Award for our social activism. I’ve been writing a bunch with John Oates and some other amazing country writers down in Nashville lately – no real accolades there, but for me it feels pretty damn exciting! I had a chance to play with some amazing bands on tour over the years including Little Big Town, The Band Perry, Dwight Yoakam, Marhsall Tucker, Train, ZZ Top, Gavin DeGraw, Corey Smith, Alison Kraus, Willie Nelson, America, Steve Miller…ok enough name dropping, but man, for an artist you’ve never heard of before, I sure am honored to be playing with such incredibly talented people these days…
- All- time favorite country song: “Mama Tried” – Merle Haggard, and recently “Some of It” by Eric Church, co-written by Clint Daniels, a guy I’m writing with a bunch in Nashville these days
- Favorite country concert: Dwight Yoakam…man that guy knows how to get an audience goin!
- If you weren’t a musician, what would you be doing: Coaching, teaching, and volunteering
- Most proud moment: We host a free festival each year on the north shore called “The Ramble.” Last year over 3000 people came out and we raised enough money to help 25 of our veteran heroes off the streets and into safe and dignified housing, right here in New England. Very humbling…
- Craziest thing that happened in your music career: Many many places i could go here with this answer, and maybe this isn’t as crazy as you had in mind: One time I had the husband of a fan reach out. She was too sick to come out to our show. The next day I drove to her house, played her some music, and hung out for a while. As we were talking I mentioned that I believe music is the act of making a joyful noise…doesn’t matter if I strum a guitar or band on a muffler. 4 months later, the first time she was able to leave the house, she and her husband came to one of our shows…he had hollowed out a muffler for me, and to this day it’s part of our drumset that we play on every night
- Other things you like to do: Hike. play bridge. drink whiskey
- Frivolous fun facts: I like cold pizza and warm beer. For a short stretch of my life i worked on a dairy farm in canada (frivolous?). I’m in Minneapolis today on tour with Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes…blowing off soundcheck to write you these answers…woot!
- Mantra: Small communities have the power to change the world. Though more commonly used: Yes, rocks with that
Adam Ezra Live
The Adam Association
Every week, Kruser’s Local Catch highlights New England’s homegrown country music talent, and tells you where to catch them locally and in Nashville. Click here to view previous catches.
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*Singer/songwriters with original music: Please submit for consideration on The Local Catch by emailing Kruser at carolyn.kruse@bbgi.com
