Ezra Bell was founded late in the summer of 2013. It was warm enough to sit on the porch into the
evening and learn a couple of songs. A lap drum a banjo and an out-of-tune guitar. Woodie Guthrie ,
“It’s a Folk Singer’s job to comfort disturbed people and to disturb comfortable people.” That’s what
Ezra Bell does.

Years on, they’ve put out records and toured the country. In Salt Lake, a young man told Ben Wuamett
(singer/songwriter) he was ‘his hero.’ The hero spent the night on the floor with his overcoat for a
blanket; the host and the piano man making love a few steps from his pillow. The floor wasn’t as bad as
a cardboard box in a vacant lot. Wuamett smiled. It’s surprising Ezra Bell is still at it. Streaming services
have surprisingly worked in Ezra Bell’s favor and listeners resonate with the tales spinning out of order
around disconcerting musical interludes. Somehow, a licensing company commissioned Ezra Bell to play
and record Sam Cooke’s worst song for an insurance commercial. Said company flew Wuamett to
Mexico City to record the vocals so as not to be sued by the Sam Cooke Foundation. The commercial
aired on Superbowl Sunday. Ezra Bell espouses neither football nor insurance but sold out accordingly
for the pittance that was paid and the exposure. Such is the music industry. Many heartfelt messages
from unknown listeners have kept Ezra Bell busy writing and recording. Eventually, a booking agency
caught on to the growing cult following and propped Ezra Bell up in front of audiences outside of
Portland, forcing the band to drive thousands of miles, sometimes in single day, to play for small crowds.
After recording an album over a year ago, a record label signed Ezra Bell to release the album and make
vinyl copies. You’re reading this now because you’re going to buy that album, suitably called, This Way
to Oblivion.

Samantha McKaige is a guitar playing, Americana singing, folk loving songwriter from Seattle. She takes inspiration from the woods and peaks of the Pacific Northwest, the beaches of Northern California, and the rivers of the Rockies.

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Samantha is pursuing songwriting at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she just released her debut Album, Bury Me Please in the Puget Sound, a collection of songs written from the grass and the sand of Washington's San Juan Islands.

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Samantha's journeys and heartaches have inspired her lyrics, and her eclectic sound reflects her musical influences.

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Samantha performs solo or with an amazing full band of talented musicians, rounding out her sound with electric and steel guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, trumpet, keyboard, backing vocals, and drums. Paired with her originals, Samantha also performs uniquely arranged covers of her favorite musicians, such as CAAMP, Ezra Bell, The Lumineers, Rainbow Kitten Surprise, Gillian Welch and The Highwomen.