Adam Ezra, Charlene Bemis
Adam Ezra Group is busy gearing up for their seventh Ramble event. An all day music event that supports veterans of the United States military and their families, Adam Ezra Group will perform a lengthy headlining set after a series of bands and singer-songwriters take turns using two stages that stand about 50 yards apart from each other on Ocean Front North. In between the two stages will be merchandise tables to purchase band paraphernalia as well as tents where attendees can learn more about veterans’ causes. This year’s event will take place on Saturday, August 27.
Ezra said the Director Of Operations for his Rally Sound nonprofit organization, Charlene Bemis, and her volunteers, work year round coordinating this year’s event and many others. This year’s efforts will focus on the children of veterans’ families.
“Three years ago, we were able to take 14 homeless vets off the streets and put them into safe housing,” Ezra said. “Two years ago, we partnered with local farms in New England to help feed 20 struggling veteran families for an entire year. Last year, we were focused on helping to build a handicap accessible home for Sgt. Chris Gomes, wounded in action in his second tour in Iraq, through an organization called Homes For Our Troops.”
The Ramble event taking place this month on Salisbury Beach’s Ocean Front North Lane will raise micro grants for families who have children that lost a parent in action.
“Some of them are struggling to get back on their feet who have kids that could use our help,” Ezra said. “We’re very excited about that. Charlene’s been coordinating with that organization, Massachusetts Military Heroes Fund. Charlene and her volunteers also organize with other nonprofit organizations throughout New England to present at The Ramble. We call it Ramble Town. In between the two stages we have various tents set up. This year they’re going to be artists selling their wares, and, also nonprofit organizations talking about different ways Ramble attendees can be activated throughout the year.”
Ezra and his team have put together a list of artists who will be performing at either stage throughout the day, leading up to Adam Ezra Group’s headlining finale. “We have a kick ass line up that I’m super excited about,” the singer said. “They’re all great musicians. Me and the rest of the artists have been putting together a compilation CD. Everybody’s donating music to that we’re going to be selling to generate music.”
Ezra, his band, and Rally Sound director Bemis have been working with the town of Salisbury and the Salisbury Beach Partnership to prepare the town for the upcoming invasion of music fans and supporters. “We’ve been talking to local business owners about sponsorship opportunities,” Ezra said. “We’ve also been reaching out to a bunch of local writers and DJs around New England to help us spread the word. That effort is just starting now.”
Adam Ezra, Ramble Town
Ezra and his Adam Ezra Group maintain a full touring and recording schedule every year. One has to wonder why a busy rock musician takes the time to focus so heavily on charitable and fundraising efforts. Ezra said that since he began his career as a professional musician and singer-songwriter, he has been asked to participate in various charity events, local fundraising efforts, and awareness campaigns.
“I’ve always been inspired by the power of small communities,” Ezra said, “when they come together to make a difference in the world. As our band has grown over the years, we find ourselves in the midst of this really inspiring community we helped shape, this community of fans and followers who come to shows and come to our various charity events we do over the course of the year.”
The initial motivation for starting the Ramble, seven years ago, was to bring that community together in a powerful way. It was less focused on the specifics of what they would accomplish together and more focused on what they could accomplish as a community. One might wonder what in Ezra’s life experience and growth as a human being made him become such a humanitarian.
“I think it was probably the realization that in doing that kind of work, I get a lot more back than I give, and that inspires me,” he said. “Honestly, it feels selfish because we, me and my band, get so much more back than we ever give.”
A Russian-Jewish man whose family emigrated to the United States before World War II, Ezra is very much aware of oppression and the horrors of this world. It was mostly Ezra’s parents that helped him form his outlook on the world.
“My mom is a folk musician and a community organizer and a music teacher,” Ezra began. “Literally, from birth, she had my listening to the artist-activists like Pete Seeger, and Bob Dylan, and Joan Baez. I think that became a huge part of what ended up inspiring me as an adult.”
Ezra’s father, a scientist and visual artist, was always very much engaged in political conversations. That came from Ezra’s grandfather who was a student of philosophy and politics. “He worked with handicapped adults, helping them find jobs,” Ezra said.
Ezra said he feels very lucky every day. He has a special job, entertaining people who come out to have a good time and to enjoy and celebrate life. “I see the very best of people and communities, every night, every day that I work,” the singer-songwriter said. “In a lot of ways, because of who we are and what we do, we get to surround ourselves with that.”
Adam Ezra Group, last year’s Ramble
Three months back, the Adam Ezra Group lost some valuable equipment when their van was broken into only a day before their annual concert on Boston Harbor boat cruise. Ezra and his band mates carried on as nothing bleak had just happened and performed a positive, upbeat show under a sunny sky.
“Don’t get me wrong,” Ezra said. “Sometimes, that, as well as the state of our world, get the best of me. I think maybe another reason for my perspective has come from in my life and my career, things have never come easily to us. I’ve been a small grass roots artist for a long, long time. Our growth has been measured one person at a time for many, many years. I think maybe in a lot of ways that’s forced me and maybe the rest of my group too to have to stay positive and to have to measure the very small victories. In a lot of way those small victories are the things we’ve had.”
Ezra said the line up for this year’s Ramble are the Jordon T.W. Trio, Haley Sabella, Marina Evans, Frank Viele, Young Frontier featuring Joe Young, Pesky J. Nixon, Sam Lorenzo, and NBC’s The Voice semi-finalist Braiden Sunshine. An after party held at the Upper Deck on Salisbury Beach will feature Kali and Ancestors In Training.
Ezra and his band mates and others involved with this year’s Ramble are thinking of starting off the day with Bloody Marys at Uncle Eddie’s establishment, which is down stairs from the Upper Deck. For his closing set, Ezra said he and his band have not yet decided what to add for the Ramble.
“We usually like to do something special for The Ramble,” Ezra said. “But at the same time, I have this belief that really we never have a set list and we never have a plan, that a concert should unfold based on what’s happening in the moment.” Yet, based on interactions with the other Ramble artists, Ezra said “I wouldn’t be surprised to see a whole bunch of them playing with us and playing with each other throughout our set and throughout the day.”
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