diff --git a/adam-core/src/main/scala/org/bdgenomics/adam/rdd/ADAMContext.scala b/adam-core/src/main/scala/org/bdgenomics/adam/rdd/ADAMContext.scala
index e82dbc2979..346cab34a9 100644
--- a/adam-core/src/main/scala/org/bdgenomics/adam/rdd/ADAMContext.scala
+++ b/adam-core/src/main/scala/org/bdgenomics/adam/rdd/ADAMContext.scala
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
  */
 package org.bdgenomics.adam.rdd
 
+import java.io.FileNotFoundException
 import java.util.regex.Pattern
 import htsjdk.samtools.SAMFileHeader
 import org.apache.avro.Schema
@@ -27,7 +28,7 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.io.{ LongWritable, Text }
 import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.lib.input.TextInputFormat
 import org.apache.spark.rdd.RDD
 import org.apache.spark.rdd.MetricsContext._
-import org.apache.spark.{ Logging, SparkConf, SparkContext }
+import org.apache.spark.{ Logging, SparkContext }
 import org.bdgenomics.adam.converters._
 import org.bdgenomics.adam.instrumentation.Timers._
 import org.bdgenomics.adam.io._
@@ -49,7 +50,6 @@ import org.apache.parquet.hadoop.ParquetInputFormat
 import org.apache.parquet.hadoop.util.ContextUtil
 import scala.collection.JavaConversions._
 import scala.collection.Map
-import scala.reflect.ClassTag
 import htsjdk.samtools.IndexedBamInputFormat
 
 object ADAMContext {
@@ -234,32 +234,49 @@ class ADAMContext(val sc: SparkContext) extends Serializable with Logging {
     filePath: String): RDD[AlignmentRecord] = {
 
     val path = new Path(filePath)
-    val fs = FileSystem.get(path.toUri, sc.hadoopConfiguration)
-    val bamFiles = if (fs.isDirectory(path)) fs.listStatus(path) else fs.globStatus(path)
-    val (seqDict, readGroups) = bamFiles
-      .map(fs => fs.getPath)
-      .flatMap(fp => {
 
-        try {
-          // We need to separately read the header, so that we can inject the sequence dictionary
-          // data into each individual Read (see the argument to samRecordConverter.convert,
-          // below).
-          val samHeader = SAMHeaderReader.readSAMHeaderFrom(fp, sc.hadoopConfiguration)
-          log.info(s"Loaded header from $fp")
-          val sd = adamBamDictionaryLoad(samHeader)
-          val rg = adamBamLoadReadGroups(samHeader)
-          Some((sd, rg))
-        } catch {
-          case e: Throwable => {
-            log.error(
-              s"Loading failed for $fp:n${e.getMessage}\n\t${e.getStackTrace.take(25).map(_.toString).mkString("\n\t")}"
-            )
-            None
+    val fs =
+      Option(
+        FileSystem.get(path.toUri, sc.hadoopConfiguration)
+      ).getOrElse(
+          throw new FileNotFoundException(
+            s"Couldn't find filesystem for ${path.toUri} with Hadoop configuration ${sc.hadoopConfiguration}"
+          )
+        )
+
+    val bamFiles =
+      Option(
+        if (fs.isDirectory(path)) fs.listStatus(path) else fs.globStatus(path)
+      ).getOrElse(
+          throw new FileNotFoundException(
+            s"Couldn't find any files matching ${path.toUri}"
+          )
+        )
+
+    val (seqDict, readGroups) =
+      bamFiles
+        .map(fs => fs.getPath)
+        .flatMap(fp => {
+          try {
+            // We need to separately read the header, so that we can inject the sequence dictionary
+            // data into each individual Read (see the argument to samRecordConverter.convert,
+            // below).
+            val samHeader = SAMHeaderReader.readSAMHeaderFrom(fp, sc.hadoopConfiguration)
+            log.info("Loaded header from " + fp)
+            val sd = adamBamDictionaryLoad(samHeader)
+            val rg = adamBamLoadReadGroups(samHeader)
+            Some((sd, rg))
+          } catch {
+            case e: Throwable => {
+              log.error(
+                s"Loading failed for $fp:n${e.getMessage}\n\t${e.getStackTrace.take(25).map(_.toString).mkString("\n\t")}"
+              )
+              None
+            }
           }
-        }
-      }).reduce((kv1, kv2) => {
-        (kv1._1 ++ kv2._1, kv1._2 ++ kv2._2)
-      })
+        }).reduce((kv1, kv2) => {
+          (kv1._1 ++ kv2._1, kv1._2 ++ kv2._2)
+        })
 
     val job = HadoopUtil.newJob(sc)
     val records = sc.newAPIHadoopFile(filePath, classOf[AnySAMInputFormat], classOf[LongWritable],