As much as I like interviewing new acts, there’s a certain satisfaction in chatting with the same artist over and over again, catching up on what’s new and happening in their lives both musically and otherwise. Such is the case this week when I got a phone call from Adam Ezra, who will bring his band, The Adam Ezra Group, back to Mainely Brews in Waterville on Saturday, Feb. 27. I have interviewed this talented gentleman three or four times over his career (the band’s first album came out in 2009 and was called “View From The Root”) and have enjoyed each and every conversation. This one that happened on Feb. 9 was no exception.

Q: The last time we talked you had just released “Better Than Bootleg, Volume 1,” and we were discussing vocal harmonies. You told me that “Volume 2” would be the album that featured the whole band contributing vocals, and, man, doesn’t it deliver. It’s a great live recording.

Ezra: Well, now we’ve got two solo acoustic live albums that we released in December and two studio projects that I’m working on with the band, so if you like the vocal harmonies on “Bootleg 2,” wait’ll you hear the studio stuff that’s coming out. Now we’re really starting to cook. I love it, man.

Q: You know, I’ve been saying it for years now: You’ve got something special going on with this band, for sure.

Ezra: I’m reminded by people in lots of different ways these days, all the time, that something unique and special is happening with the music that we’re making and the community that we’re building, and I feel very lucky to be a part of it all.

Q: It sounds like things couldn’t be better for you right about now.

Ezra: Well, I’ll tell you what, you’re catching me the first day back from a solo house concert tour. There were 30 shows that took me to 18 states, something like 25 different flights and a whole lot of miles, every single night playing in the living rooms of fans all over the country. How cool is that? Talk about an affirmation. I mean, people wrote in, and I showed up in their living room, and we played music all night. It was awesome, just awesome.

Q: You’ve played Mainely Brews before, correct?

Ezra: Oh yeah, and we have a fun time there. It’s like the trenches. It’s underground, brick, nasty sounds in the room, but it’s like one of those places where people just come ready for an epic concert experience, so it’s really fun. We’re in a strange and interesting time in our career in that we’re really playing such a range of venues on any given night. From beautiful, 200-year-old theaters like The Flying Monkey in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to clubs like Mainely Brews.

Q: Well, that’s got to keep it interesting for you guys as well, too.

Ezra: It is, it really is. One of the reasons that I think we have such a great and loyal fan base, one of the reasons that you can hear the enthusiasm in the crowds on those live recordings when we play, is that every night when we walk up onto a stage, we don’t know what we’re going to play. We don’t have a plan. The environment that we’re in, and the people who show up for the show really dictate the direction of a concert. So a show that we play at Mainely Brews may be completely different from a show that we play at, say, The Flying Monkey or at Jonathan’s in Ogunquit, where we’re playing this weekend as well.

Q: And on “Bootleg 2,” I saw that One Longfellow Square was one of the locations where songs were recorded, which is completely different from Jonathan’s, The Flying Monkey and Mainely Brews.

Ezra: One Longfellow Square is like the “folk club,” right? It’s like this beautiful, intimate space that is just an awesome place for a fan to just experience a concert.

Q: Now, with all these irons you have in the fire right now, two live solo concert CDs, two studio projects and five earlier albums, you should have plenty to draw from when you hit Waterville on the 27th of this month.

Ezra: Yeah, man, and one of the coolest things about Mainely Brews is that when we went up there the first time, no one really knew who we were. Now there is definitely a Mainely Brews community that has formed around our shows that are there. We know staff that are there, and it feels like a reunion when we come back and get to hang with them. And we see a lot of the same fans, and we get to forge friendships and connections through our shows there. That part is so rewarding for me. That’s certainly happening at Mainely Brews, big time.

Q: Is there anything you’d like to pass on to the folks reading this article?

Ezra: Well, maybe about those house concerts that I mentioned earlier. I’ve been playing them this past month, and the tour took me to Presque Isle and Bangor and Damariscotta, Maine, but before that tour started, me and the band opened for the Rustic Overtones at Port City Music Hall. Now Maine used to be a place where not a lot of people knew who we were, but I’m looking out at that show in Portland, and so many folks were singing along. It’s been so rewarding to see and be able to connect with the fans now.

Lucky Clark has spent more than 45 years writing about good music and the people who make it. He can be reached at luckyc@myfairpoint.net if you have any questions, comments or suggestions.

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