Ezra’s long history closely tied to Baton Rouge

• By JOHN WIRT
• Music writer
• Published: Sep 11, 2009

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Formed at LSU in 1988, Better Than Ezra returns to the city that played such an important role in the pop-rock band’s history next week for a show at the Varsity Theatre.

That history includes the group’s big-selling 1993 indie CD, Deluxe; the latter disc’s re-release in 1995 by major label Elektra Records; “Good,” a massive hit single; and sales of a million copies for Deluxe.   

All of which was a long way from those early Baton Rouge gigs at local bars and years of hard road work that brought small reward. Original band members Kevin Griffin, Tom Drummond and Cary Bonnecaze achieved popularity, singer-guitarist Griffin said, the old-school way.

“Better Than Ezra was together seven years before we got signed in 1995,” Griffin  said from his home in Los Angeles. “‘Good’ was turned down by everybody in the industry but then, suddenly, one person goes, ‘Oh, that’s a hit!’ ’’

Ironically, Bonnecaze left the band shortly after the breakthrough success of “Good” and Deluxe. Travis McNabb replaced Bonnecaze, staying with the band until last year, when he joined the hot country act, Sugarland.

Better Than Ezra’s new drummer Michael Jerome is an in-demand musician who also performs with British singer-songwriter-guitarist Richard Thompson and former Velvet Underground member John Cale.

For more than 21 years, singer-songwriter-guitarist Griffin and bassist Drummond kept the Better Than Ezra flame burning, even though the band never quite duplicated the commercial impact of “Good” and Deluxe. The group released its latest studio album, Paper Empire, independently in May.

“Tom and I, it’s one of those rare things,” Griffin said. “Most relationships don’t work, most bands don’t work. Finding someone you can spend any amount of time with these days is difficult.

“It just so happens that Tom and I really are buddies. It’s about knowing each other’s personality, knowing when to give, knowing when to let someone have his say and shut your mouth. And Tom is such an easygoing guy. There’s never been a more even-keeled dude, much more so than I am.”

Following Hurricane Katrina, Griffin and his family found refuge in San Antonio. Although his Garden District house wasn’t damaged, his son’s school was flooded.

“I was really lucky,” Griffin said. “But my son in kindergarten said something really profound. ‘My house was OK, but my home was destroyed.’ And I thought that I came out of it unscathed, but we really didn’t. It blew us out to L.A. and, two years later, we were like, ‘What the hell happened?’ ” 

In July 2006 Griffin and his family moved to Los Angeles, a city where he has a non-Ezra career as a songwriter and producer for other artists, including American Idol winner David Cook. Los Angeles also is the ideal place to pursue TV and film placement for Griffin’s and Better Than Ezra’s songs. Even before Katrina and the move west, he’d written for Meatloaf and Blondie.

Drummond remains in New Orleans, where he operates the band’s Fudge Recording Studio.