“REBUILD AMERICA” BY ED HALE AND TRANSCENDENCE – THE 9/11 TRIBUTE SONG – TEN YEARS LATER


Every year since 2001 the rock band Ed Hale and Transcendence re-release the song and accompanying music video for the September 11th tribute song “Rebuild America” during this week. All proceeds from iTunes downloads of song go to New York’s Robin Hood Foundation which has a special fund for September 11th victims’ families. This year is no different. Though it’s hard to believe it’s been ten years.

PRODUCTION CREW SENT TO NEW ORLEANS TO CAPTURE FOOTAGE FOR “NEW ORLEANS DREAMS” MUSIC VIDEO

After seeing the footage from the latest natural and man-made disasters to strike the South, Ed Hale decided to release the song “New Orleans Dreams” from his Ballad On Third Avenue album as the next single to radio to raise money for the American Red Cross to help people struggling down there who have lost their homes and more. Thus a portion of all proceeds from sales and digital downloads of the song will go directly to the American Red Cross.
But releasing the song as a single wasn’t enough. Hale decided that the music video for the song, written years before the BP Oil Spill and this latest deluge of flooding and tornadoes, should feature real time video footage of what it looks like down in New Orleans and the surrounding areas right now. So he tweeted out to fans on Facebooka simple message looking for someone who lived in the area who could supply current video footage for his new music video.
Hale was relieved to discover many very capable people had applied for the project. One of them was Brian Johnson and company from Anim8ter Graphics. Hale was excited further by the project because it turned out that Johnson was an old friend and classmate of Hale’s from high school. On Memorial Day Weekend, Johnson and crew set out on a roadtrip from Central Florida to drive to New Orleans to film live footage of the city for the upcoming music video. They are currently in New Orleans as we type this post and report that though the devastation is alarming and heart wrenching, they have been able to obtain oodles of excellent footage of what things look like down South. They are updating us every few hours as well as their own Facebook page.
Hale believes that featuring real life video footage of what it looks like down there now will help raise more awareness about the multitude of different catastrophes that the people of New Orleans and the surrounding areas are having to deal with, even though the news reporting of the sound bite may have disappeared from the radar.
A music video for the song will come shortly as soon as the Anim8ter crew gets back and finishes editing. Our prayers and good wishes are with the crew to return home safely. In the meantime, fans can listen to and buy the song from iTunes or Amazon.com and get at least a small sense of satisfaction from knowing that their money is going to a good cause. Lend your own ninety-nine cents by listening to and buying the song below:
 

TRANSCENDENCE SINGER FILMS FIRST MUSIC VIDEO FOR NEW SOLO ALBUM

June 27 to June 30, 2009, Transcendence singer/guitarist Ed Hale has flown to Miami, FL to shoot the first music video from his new Ballad On Third Avenue album. Hale and some of the other Transcendence boys will appear in the video for the title track, the song nicknamed “Beautiful Losers,” which is the fifth track on the album. The video is being directed by Flavia Molinari. It is currently the most popular song from the album being played on college radio stations across the United States and Canada, rotating on approximately three-hundred stations. Not much is known about the video except that most of the shoot is taking place in a hotel and it is being filmed in black and white. Plans are also under way to film the music video for the first proper commercial single from the album, the second track “I Walk Alone,” which hits Triple A stations nationwide on August 2nd.