Drawing from the tradition of American folk music, The Adam Ezra Group embraces their artistry, nurturing a community of fans through heartfelt words and music. Exemplifying this mission, the bands latest album release “Hurricane Wind” is a hands-on, groundbreaking collaborative effort with their fans.
“I am so excited about this project,” says Ezra, from his home in Boston. “We wanted to do a fan selected album and so what we did was we shared with our fan community 23 rough demo songs. Then we took them into the studio with us, virtually, and shared with them as we constructed 23 studio tracks. They chose the final 11 tracks to be on the album, making suggestions, writing ideas, arrangements – they really got involved. They helped us name the album. They helped us pick the artwork. It’s really a fan co-produced album.”
“I struggled to figure out a good name for the album and I asked fans to write in with suggestions,” adds Ezra. “Nothing sounded quite right to me. We have a song called ‘I Believe’ and in that song we talk about how you gotta come on like a hurricane wind. It’s a song about the power that each of us has as individuals to shape the world we’re living in and the fact that we are all connected together. As soon as I mentioned “Hurricane Wind” to our fans they loved it!”
Prominently featured on the album is John Oates (Hall & Oates), whom Ezra befriended and collaborated with during the songwriting process for “Hurricane Wind.”
“My manager, Brian Doyle, who used to work with Daryl Hall and John Oates, thought that John and I would work well together, says Ezra. He said ‘you guys are cut from the same cloth. One of these days I am going to get you guys together.’ Brian sent John some of my demos, he liked them and I went down to Nashville. That’s how we got started.”
“We sat down in the studio unplugged, two guitars, and we sang and recorded it live,” adds Ezra. “We were so happy that three of the songs ended up on the album. Two of the three we recorded as a band and John and I recorded the third ‘All I Am.’ It’s fun and inspiring to have John on the album.”
Released on May 21st, “Hurricane Wind” was offered as a free two-week download to fans on the band’s website.
Zigzagging their way across the U.S. routinely performing a backbreaking schedule of concerts, Ezra finds personal gratification beyond the weight of life as a touring artist.
“The majority of what we do is this team of incredible musicians,” says Ezra. “I started off one fan at a time, one bar room at a time and now it’s one concert at a time. We travel around and we play many, many shows all over the country, 150 to 200 shows a year. Being an independent grass roots artist, it’s a hard life. It’s 80,000 miles in a van, pulling a trailer with my team. It’s a lifestyle filled with constant exhaustion and inspiration.”
“We are not only doing a lot of the heavy lifting ourselves,” adds Ezra. “We are also connecting on a personal level with fans as we go. That would be harder to do if we were playing bigger venues, if we were in a bigger place career-wise as a band. With that said, I couldn’t be happier. We seem to be growing and seem to be spreading the word all the time. It’s really this community of listeners that makes it incredible and it’s incredible to watch it happen. I couldn’t ask for anything else at this point.”
On a quest to share his music with as many fans as possible, Ezra again takes a groundbreaking approach to putting his music in the hands of anyone that will listen.
“We have a different mentality about selling music than a lot of other artists,” says Ezra. “When we have shows we have a thing called the ‘I Love You Box.’ We have a table of CDs and we tell our fans, ‘If you like the music you’ve been listening to, please help yourself to some. If you have $10, $5 whatever, it’s fine. Grab a CD. If you are down to your last $1 keep it to yourself and help yourself to a CD anyway. We believe that music is meant to be listened to. God knows we’ve all been in a place where we’ve been down on our luck and couldn’t afford everything we wanted. I never want somebody’s ability to buy an album and to have money come between him or her owning the music that we make. The heart of the message to me is to always remember the place I am in and not get caught up in the things we have yet to achieve. I want people to get connected through the music.”
