Jeff was an amazing guy. When you spoke to him, you could tell he was genuinely interested in your creative endeavors. He really pushed to get my music out there, always reaching out to offer opportunities to be featured on the show. Jeff was so thoughtful, he always asked about me and my family when we had conversations. He played such a role in exposing me to the New England music scene, and I owe him so much. He was a creative, caring, ice cream loving, and overall amazing human. Jeff- Rest in peace and keep on typewriting.
appearances: June 6, 2017 and Aug. 6, 2019 (with Whale Watch); June 9, 2020 (with Ezra Cares)
Breeze liner notes (from Bandcamp): The first time Ezra came to play on Pipeline! he hadn’t yet entered high school. His dad drove the band to the station, since he was playing drums with his brother in Whale Watch. It wasn’t until the interview that people out in radioland listening in had any idea just how young they were at that point. They’ve been back since as well, but with his brother Noah off at college this past year, I wasn’t expecting anything for a while.
Searching for new music recently, the Ezra Cares album came up and caught my ear on first listen. It wasn’t until looking into it that I realized it was Ezra’s solo album, made in the quiet of his bedroom. Equal parts Clairo and Chris Knox, this is when bedroom pop succeeds at being something magnificently greater than its own intentions.
Without a back catalog to ask for a song from, I was especially interested to see what he was going to pull from our list of potential covers. Somehow in the process he has recast the melancholy of Kacey Musgraves’ “Happy and Sad,” from a wistful dreaming to a hopeful yearning. I guess it’s what you might expect to hear from someone whose junior prom was cancelled by a pandemic.