NEVER BEFORE SEEN FOOTAGE FOUND OF ED HALE SINGING “NEW ORLEANS DREAMS” IN THE RECORDING STUDIO


This never before seen footage brought to us via Fernando Perdomo, lead guitarist for Ed Hale and The Transcendence, and singer/guitarist of the band Dreaming In Stereo. Perdomo engineered and produced Hale’s Ballad On third Avenue album in his Cave Studios. He also played many of the instruments on the album and sang background vocals. What we see here is Hale adding a second lead vocal to the song after singer/songwriter Matthew Sabatella had already laid down his background harmony vocals. Hale had already recorded his main lead vocal on the song and thought the song was finished.
Co-producer and bassist for the album, Roger Houdaille (also in Transcendence and founder/singer/guitarist of the band Ex Norwegian), listened to the completed rough mix of the song and felt that Hale’s vocals “could be better” and urged Ed to give it “one more try.” Needless to say, Hale wasn’t jumping up and down to do so and argued passionately against having to “sing the whole effing song over again!” Especially because the background vocals were already on the tape — which meant that he would not only have to attempt to “sing a better lead”, but he would also have to try to perfectly match all the background vocals that were already on the song or they wouldn’t be in sync. “I can honestly say that I felt one hundred and ten percent sure that the vocals we had already tracked sounded great!” says Hale. “But Roger kept making these ugly faces and saying that they were way out of tune. I just couldn’t hear it. But I trusted Rog. I mean, he’s not a sadist or anything. He had to have a point. Eventually they talked me into it. And yeah, now, obviously, I’m very glad I listened to him.”