Adam Ezra Group at Jerry's Juke Joint, February 4, 2025

• He takes a month out of each year to visit the living rooms of his fans around the country…
• His band and nonprofit organization RallySound host a free festival every summer that raised $151,000 for homeless veterans in 2024…
• He live-streamed for 500 nights in a row during the pandemic…
• They co-produced an album with 163 fans…

If you haven’t connected with Adam Ezra Group yet, these are just a few examples to help you understand how this underground, Americana songwriter and his bandmates seem to have popped out of nowhere, establishing a connection with their fans unlike any other, and are suddenly selling out theaters throughout the Northeast.

Adam Ezra will joke with you that while the “nowhere” part might be accurate, nothing has ever just “popped” for this folk musician, activist. Without resources, connections, or any kind of clue how the music world works, Ezra began playing shows over 20 years ago. When music venues wouldn’t hire him, he played bars, bookstores, fields, and parking lots, often raising money for causes he cared about; a practice that grew into his nonprofit organization RallySound.

“We’d play 5 hours a night,” Adam reminisces, “more often than not, in danger of outnumbering the audiences we were playing for…”

So how did this band operating so far outside the traditional music world come to win New England Music Award’s “Americana Act of the Year” in 2023? What could have happened to inspire John Oates to call Adam and invite him to begin a songwriting friendship that would lead to John producing their upcoming release and co-write, “Hold Each Other Now”? What happened to catch the attention of The Wallflowers, who recently invited AEG to join them on their spring tour, or SPIN Magazine who recently proclaimed, “This Independent Underground Folk Band Is Blowing Up Without Selling Out.”

If you ask Adam, he’ll tell you:

“One person at a time, over many years and thousands of shows, decided to turn their heads to listen. One person at a time decided to share our music with folks they care about. That’s always been our story. It’s no fairytale, but it sure makes me proud and humbled when I look out from the stage to watch theaters full of people singing along to our music.”

These days you’ll find Adam and his bandmates, Corinna Smith (Fiddle), Poche Ponce (Bass), and Alex Martin (Percussion), constantly out on the road. If you look at their schedule now, you can buy tickets to see them at festivals, rock venues, and theaters around the country, but you will also see their tour continuously peppered with activism and grassroots events; a testament to an artist who will never forget where he came from, and whose mission is about much more than music.

Nestled in Montgomery’s Lower Commerce Street Historical District, is more than just a bar; it’s a journey through time. Housed in a building constructed in 1920 and listed on the National Registry of Historical Places, it offers a unique blend of music, history, and community.

Photos by Lee Hetherington

Host or Publisher The Cloverdale Listening Room