Kevin Griffin - Classic Country Music (2023)

As frontman for Louisiana-based alt-rock trio Better Than Ezra, Kevin Griffin achieved mainstream popularity in the mid-'90s, later parlaying his talents into a successful career as an industry tunesmith for artists like Howie Day, Sugarland, and Barenaked Ladies. Better Than Ezra continued to record and tour into the 2010s, though by that point Griffin's focus had ultimately tilted more heavily toward songwriting out of his home base in Nashville. In 2019, after three decades in the music business, he recorded his first solo album, Anywhere You Go.

A native of Monroe, Louisiana, Griffin attended Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge where he and three friends formed Better Than Ezra in 1988. Led by Griffin's hooky melodic songwriting, the band became a mainstay of the Southern college rock circuit over the coming years, and after a couple of independent releases, landed a deal with Elektra in 1995. Behind hit singles like "Good" and "King of New Orleans," Better Than Ezra enjoyed mainstream success, especially on the modern rock charts, in the late '90s. After being dropped by Elektra at decade's end, they continued to release albums on independent labels, charting another hit with 2001's "Extra Ordinary." Starting around 2003, Griffin began a second career as a songwriter, writing tunes for Blondie, Meat Loaf, and Howie Day, the latter of whom scored a number one hit with the Griffin co-write "Collide."

Several months after the release of Better Than Ezra's 2005 album, Before the Robots, Griffin and his family were displaced by Hurricane Katrina and subsequently left New Orleans, spending the remainder of the decade living in Los Angeles. He continued to focus on his songwriting and production efforts, writing more songs with Howie Day as well as for acts like Tristan Prettyman, Train, and James Blunt. Following Better Than Ezra's 2009 release, Paper Empire, Griffin landed another hit with "Stuck Like Glue" for country band Sugarland. He moved to Nashville in 2011 to be closer to its burgeoning songwriting industry and spent the next several years writing for a variety of artists including Barenaked Ladies, Daniel Powter, and Christina Perri. In addition to his occasional outings with Better Than Ezra, he also formed a holiday-themed side project called Band of Merrymakers and co-founded the Pilgrimage Music Festival in Franklin, Tennessee. After decades spent fronting a band and writing songs for others, Griffin launched a solo career in 2019 with the release of his debut album, Anywhere You Go. ~ Timothy Monger