Corinna Smith
Being the fiddle player for Boston’s hugely popular Adam Ezra Group has opened up a world of possibilities for Corinna Smith. AEG tours clubs and small theaters around the country. They also get to work with those who’ve made it big.
Smith, when she took the call for this interview, was driving to Michigan to play with Adam Ezra in an opening slot he has with John Oates of Hall And Oates. “That’s a dream come true. I never thought I’d be on stage with a rock and roll hall of famer,” Smith said.
Yet, Smith has shared in the success of Adam Ezra Group for almost ten years now. AEG have their own sold out shows at Tupelo Music Hall in Derry, New Hampshire, City Winery in Boston, Massachusetts as well as several other sizable events around New England and around the country. Their CD sales are also brisk for a “local” band.
“Man, it’s been really exciting lately,” she said. “We’re an independent band. Were still certainly not a huge world famous band. It’s still satisfying to be able to play for a lot people every night and hear positive feedback from our fans. I feel really lucky to be part of the band.”
Smith came to join the band after AEG ran an advertisement for a brief substitute player. Neither Smith nor the band foresaw what was coming. She was living in Connecticut at the time, playing in a wedding band, and, like many working musicians, she was not quite making ends meet.
Corinna Smith
“Adam Ezra Group was looking for a substitute fiddle player just for a three week tour with a band called Corey Smith.. I heard about them through a friend of mine and decided to audition really not knowing anything about the band, just figuring ‘Hey, this might be a way to make next month’s rent.’ I got this job, and I think it was day two of the tour that we all just had a little chat and said ‘Hey, this feels awesome.’ We love playing together, and I became a permanent member. They felt like my family pretty much immediately.”
Even though Smith is a supporting player for songs written and sung by Ezra, she, and her band mates, are allowed to contribute greatly to AEG in the studio and in performances.
“Adam is certainly the songwriter of the band, and he has the final say, but he loves getting input from his band members. He’s very open to our ideas and our suggestions. Often times they get used. Sometimes they get changed a little and used. Sometimes they’re not quite right for the song.”
As for her own contributions to Ezra’s material, Smith writes all of her own fiddle solos and each night is different as she’s an improvising musician. Her ensemble playing is often half of her own ideas for her instrument and about half coming from Ezra and or her other AEG band mates.
“The improvised solo sections are entirely my own. Unless I do something really wacky, I can pretty much do what I want there.”
Before joining Adam Ezra Group, Smith played in a wide variety of combos. After high school graduation she joined a theatrical touring band out of Canada called Barrage, playing with them for two years before going to college. After college graduation, she had her own band for three years, with rotating members, playing private parties and weddings in the US and in Singapore where she lived for a year.
“Adam is actually the first rock band that I played with,” she said. “Before his band I was primarily a folk musician. I started as a classical musician and I got into bluegrass as a teenager and Irish music a little bit later in my teens and a lot of different Americana styles, but all sort of folk music prior to Adam. I had never played with a drummer before him.”
Corinna Smith
In the years before Smith had joined Adam Ezra Group, she was often the victim of industry perceptions of age, appearance, and size, a theme common to many women in the business, especially those who began as early as Smith. At a young age, producers and managers told her that she was required to dress or act “sexy.”
“In the past and I don’t want to drag any previous bands I’ve played with through the dirt or anything,” she began. “When I was younger, there was one job particularly I was consistently told that I sounded fine but I needed to lose 20 pounds to stay in the band or may wardrobe was all wrong.” She had once been told not to smile too widely.
The fiddler has perceived that she had, at times, been hired based on her look. “That’s just not satisfying as a musician. That’s not why I play music,” she said. “That’s not what I love about it. I hope that’s not what an audience takes away from it. Fortunately, I have not had to deal with that in the last eight to ten years. So, that’s great.”
Adam Ezra Group’s neo hippie vibe with its new age dynamic of respect and love for the music has made a good home for Smith. “It’s partly because the fans are so special and our dynamic is where were not trying to be a sexy pop band. We’re trying to share music and stories, and I thing that vibe comes across. The fans know when they go to a show they’re not expecting to see a spectacle with flashy, glitzy costuming. They’re coming to share the experience of the songs and the stories.”
Smith believes that the “sexy” push comes from music industry marketing departments. She pointed to the tremendous amount of pressure on managers, labels, and producers to recapture their investments and to maintain a huge profit margin.
“It’s possible to make a lot of money, I think, going the sexy pop star kind of route,.” she said. “If you’re a manager of a group and you think you have an opportunity to make more money, I can see how it could be appealing to go down that road. I’m really lucky we don’t go down that road in Adam’s group.”
Corinna Smith
Aside from how the pressure to conform to sexy pop star standards impacts the industry, it also takes a toll on individual, especially those who are serious about their songs and musicianship. Today’s pop stars are getting younger and younger so the issue is becoming darker and darker. Smith knows. She’s been there.
“The first time I ran into that, I was still a teenager,” she said. “I don’t’ think I processed it really well. I took a lot of that criticism really strongly and for a little time I believed that my value as a musician and my value to the world was based on my appearance and my size. That’s part of why now I feel really strongly that I should be sending the opposite message for younger artists out there who are maybe still getting their start. It doesn’t have to be about looks, and it’s certainly not what a person’s value is made of.”
Aside from her feminist criticism of the industry, Smith is also an activist in a nonpartisan political cause. She began an initiative last year called Folkin Vote, a voter registration drive which she has carried into this year. At any of her AEG gigs or whomever she is working with, Smith has voter registration materials on site to register voters.
“I’m not trying to tell people how to vote. I just want people to use their voices,” she said. “So far, I’ve registered almost 170 voters, and it’s something that I’m really proud of, and I hope to keep going and keep it growing over the next couple of years.”
Smith, with the help of a special friend, has branched out into doing a lot of studio work for other artists. She often works as a hired gun for Josh Gold, the AEG keyboardist who removed himself from Ezra’s touring gigs to focus more on his Basement Studio in Malden, Massachusetts. Smith is aware, too, that this could some day lead to a solo artist recording of her own.
“I do a lot of recording with Josh. I love that whenever he needs a string player for something, he’ll call me up,” she said. “Through him, I’ve gotten to play on 20 other artist’s projects at this point. He’s always got things going on. I’m not working on an album of my own right now, but I do enjoy writing in my spare time. There may be a time I want to release something of my own, but not right now.”
Corinna Smith
Aside from fiddle, Smith plays several other instruments. Piano was her childhood‘s first. Banjo, mandolin, guitar, and an accordion she plays for a few songs in the AEG shows are among her repertoire.
“Honestly, I’m not a great accordion player. I just enjoy it,” she said. “I’ve started singing more, recently. I’m always looking for new instrument to pick up. It’s just a really fun learning process for me. When I’m 85, I’ll still hopefully be learning new instruments.”
Smith’s desire to play music began at age three. Seeing her father and grandfather playing music in the living room made her want to try. She thought it was the coolest thing and began begging her parents for piano lessons while still a toddler. Her family’s encouragement was one important push.
Alex Martin, Corinna Smith, Adam Ezra, Poche Ponce; Adam Ezra Group
“I also had amazing teachers in the public schools in (Saline)Michigan when I grew up, a man named Bob Phillips who has been a huge influence on my musical life,” she said. “I still call him sometimes for advice and to tell him what I’m up to. He was a mega inspiring teacher for me. I just fell in love with music as a kid and just never stopped.”
Smith is not sure where she would like to see her music career go from here. She’s too much in the moment of her current success, sounding high on it all when she answers her interview questions.
“It’s so fun right now. I think the possibilities for us are pretty awesome, right now. We have this incredible kind community. They’re super supportive. They’re super engaged. They help us out with all the nonprofit missions we go on. It’s really exciting to see that continue to grow. Where we’re at is already really exciting. I don’t know where it’s going to go. Wherever it does, I hope that it’s with the Adam Ezra Group, and I hope we just continue to do what we love every night. It’s pretty amazing. I feel really lucky.”
