ADAM EZRA BRINGS “REVELATE” AND HIS TRAVELING VILLAGE BACK TO THE PHILADELPHIA FOLK FESTIVAL
The first time I saw Adam Ezra, he wasn’t on stage – he was sitting on the ground in front of it. It was Thursday night at the 61st Philadelphia Folk Festival in 2024, and Miss Emily called him up from the crowd for The Beatles’ “Get Back.” Later that night he returned the favor, bringing Miss Emily and Shanna in a Dress up for Simon and Garfunkel’s “Cecilia” before closing his set by inviting every kid in the crowd on stage to sing Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.” It remains one of my favorite concerts ever – not just at the festival, ever.
So when the Adam Ezra Group was announced for the 63rd Philadelphia Folk Festival, happening Aug. 14-16 at the Old Pool Farm in Upper Salford Township, Pennsylvania, I knew I had to have him on the podcast. Adam called me from a family vacation on Cape Cod – literally walking a beach during his daughter’s nap time – and told me he’s now “totally bought into the mythology of the Thursday night magic.” This year the band gets the big stage: they close out Friday night, a slot Adam says has the whole band feeling honored and appreciated.
They arrive with “Revelate,” the band’s new album and their first ever pressed to vinyl – copies of which Adam promised to haul to the festival merch table. The band recorded it in Austin, Texas, with producer Gordy Quist of The Band of Heathens, whose studio is built for recording live. For a band that thrives on stage and finds the studio “removed” from what inspires them, tracking the whole group in a room together – arranging in real time with the microphones on – made this their most invested album and, Adam says, the one with the least editing.
That in-the-moment approach is the whole band in miniature. The Adam Ezra Group never walks on stage with a setlist, and every night is different – “sometimes the train wrecks are the best parts of the show.” It’s why their fans, who call themselves the Traveling Village, follow the band the way Deadheads and Phish fans follow theirs, and why the band has always welcomed tapers. That evolved into the Live Sound Project: the band records every show in real time, blending soundboard channels into the room mix, and burns thumb drives at the merch table so fans can take that night’s one-of-a-kind show home with them. (Fair warning: festival logistics may keep the rig at home on Friday – Adam is only half-joking when he encourages you to bootleg the set.)
The merch table itself is what Adam calls a village hub. Everything is pay-what-you’re-comfortable-paying – or free. “I just spent most of my life as the guy that spent his last dollars on the ticket,” he told me, “and the guy without any dollars left to take home a souvenir, and we never want that to be the case at our concerts.”
That philosophy scales up to RallySound, the band’s nonprofit dedicated to empowering community through music and activism. Most shows now include some local element – a food drive, a shelter collection, a cause a fan brought to the band – and its centerpiece is The Ramble, the all-volunteer festival the band hosts in Massachusetts each year on the Saturday before Labor Day. Admission is donate-what-you-can, and every dollar goes toward ending veteran homelessness in New England – a cause chosen by the village itself, and one close to Adam, whose grandfathers both served. Ramble 17 happens Aug. 29. “When we’re doing a little good for the world, it makes the music sound better,” Adam said. “We really do.”
Twenty-five years in, Adam says the band has never experienced growth like this – all while he balances van touring with being a dad to two little girls who have started dancing their faces off at the band’s Maine shows.
Before the final three questions, Adam traced it all back: a Weird Al Yankovic album on vinyl in fifth grade (full circle to “Revelate” on wax), a first concert seeing Weird Al open for The Monkees at Great Woods, and the show that really did it – driving his late grandfather’s 1981 Chevy Celebrity to see the Allman Brothers at 16, where 20,000 strangers became a village for a night. His favorite screen score bends the rules: “Firefly,” Joss Whedon’s rootsy sci-fi western, and its theme “The Ballad of Serenity.”
Adam gets to the farm Thursday hoping to catch Ben Arnold’s set, then plans to soak in the festival all day Friday before closing the night. If you see either of us on the hill, come say hi – I’ll be the one with the silly mustache and a pocket full of stickers.
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Paul “Dawg” Dixon wrote, composed and recorded the intro and outro music. The voices you hear at the end are Graeme Armstrong, Steve Poltz and Keller Williams. The last sound you hear is Clawed Giroux Smith.
