University senior Geoff Ziemer isn’t sure what he’s doing this summer. But a cross-country road trip with four complete strangers isn’t out of the question.
Ziemer is currently a semifinalist for the American Rag Ragged Road Tour, having auditioned in March. A documentary that will follow a group of students, the Ragged Road Tour held 14 open casting calls across the nation at locations such as the South By Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas; the beach during spring break in Panama City, Fla.; and the EMU’s Ben Linder Room.
“What they do is pick five students all together from all over the nation to go on this nationwide tour – from West Coast to East Coast – and along the way, meet up with all these amazing people from the music industry,” explained University senior Manisha Marberry, a student ambassador for American Rag.
The Ragged Road Tour was open to any 18- to 24-year-old college student with a passion for any aspect of the music industry, be it singing, dancing, rapping, choreographing or producing.
“I felt like I did really well for how nervous I was,” said Ziemer, who heard about the casting call from Marberry, a friend from high school, and had no idea what to expect. “I knew I only had five minutes or less so I knew I couldn’t mess up.”

Marberry said, “Geoff does not rap about stuff we hear about on the radio. He wrote a rap about what’s going on in Darfur. He brings something new to the Ragged Road Tour. I think what that is, is 100 percent passion for what he does.”
Eric Schoenberg, director of brand engagement for RepNation, a media network that represents American Rag, said the best candidates were people who “are the most passionate about joining the music industry in some shape or form.”
Ziemer, whose audition rap was about respecting poets from generations past such as Wordsworth, does not like the state of today’s rap music.
“(Artists) do all their thought processing in the recording studio with a bottle at their side,” he said. “You need to be out in the real world, seeing things, hearing things, living with people. I feel like music today is so drowned out by bass, and I honestly don’t think listeners challenge themselves to understand what they’re listening to.”
Ziemer has been writing music since he was in eighth grade; he started performing about three years ago.
“I’m an English major,” he said. “I love writing. I love learning new aspects of our language. I throw it all together into something my friends might appreciate.”
The Ragged Road Tour – which is partially to promote the Macy’s-owned American Rag clothing line – will film for most of August.
“The footage will be kind of produced in the form of a series of Webisodes,” Schoenberg said. “They’re slated tentatively to air in late September.”
Ziemer doesn’t know where the tour will take him, but if selected, he hopes to go to New Orleans.
“That’s almost part of the U.S. birth of music,” he said, noting the importance of jazz in New Orleans’ culture from “back when music was fuel for people to keep doing what they’re doing.”
In addition to traveling and seeing the country, Ziemer would also like the opportunity “to meet people who work in the field as a business. I’ve always surrounded myself with people who do it for the love or as a side hobby.”
Networking and collaborating with his travelmates, particularly any who can sing, also appeals to him.
“That’s my ultimate dream,” Ziemer said. “To get away from just plugging my instrumentals in the speakers and going.”
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