"Mississippi Like Home For Better Than Ezra"
by M. Scott Morris with the Tupelo Daily Journal
June 6, 2003

Mississippi seems like a second home to members of the Louisiana-based alternative rock band Better Than Ezra.

"Ole Miss really embraced us early on" singer Kevin Griffin said in a phone call from New Orleans Thursday. "Oxford and to a lesser extend Starkville were places where we really could play and have a good following."

At 10:45 p.m. today the band will play to old fans - known as Ezralites and hope to make some new ones during the 2003 Elvis Presley Festival.

"We still have just a great following in Mississippi. High School Kids and people in their 30s are fans," Griffin said. "We're still making the best music we can and entertaining people out there. Somehow, it continues to work, so we're thrilled."

Griffin said the band spent Thursday preparing a special treat just for the Tupelo show.

"We're actually working up an Elvis song," he said. "It will either be 'Suspicious Minds' or 'Maria's the Name.' If we're asked to play the Elvis Fest, we've got to tip our hat to the king - most definitely."

Solid Reputation
Better Than Ezra, which formed at Louisiana Sate University in 1988, burst onto the scene in 1995, when the bands self-produced and self-promoted album "Deluxe" sold 30,000 copies. That prompted Elektra Records to sign the band and the album eventually went platinum on the strengths of the singles "Good" and "In The Blood."

On Thursday Amazon.com listed the band's fourth CD "Closer" as the No. 1 selling CD in Mississippi, just ahead of "Jerry Clower's Greatest Hits."  "Wow," Griffin said when told of the news.

Better Than Ezra is currently recording material for a new album that could be ready by February 2004.

"We're probably going to be playing three or four new songs, I imagine," Griffin said. "It's great to test new songs out on the road. You get an instant reaction and you know if the song has any resonance with people."

Griffin plans to drive up today from his New Orleans home and he promises the band will be ready to put on a show in Elvis' hometown.

"If you believe in the ethic of TCB -meaning Takin' Care of Business- you've got to...come down to the Fest," he said, "because we're going to be Takin' Care of Business in Tupelo."