ED HALE RELEASES NEW SINGLE “NEW ORLEANS DREAMS” TO HELP RAISE MONEY FOR DISASTER VICTIMS

The latest single to be released from Ed Hale’s Ballad On Third Avenue album is entitled “New Orleans Dreams” – track 8 on the singer’s most recent album. This will be the fourth single released from the “Ballad…” album, which is still going strong with critics, music blogs, radio, fans and sales. Dying Van Gogh Records has agreed to donate a portion of the proceeds from all digital downloads of the single to the American Red Cross to help efforts to yet again aid and assist disaster victims in that region.
Fans can listen to and then purchase the song directly from a widget created by SoundCloud here.
 
Hale said of the decision that he got the idea after seeing footage on TV of the latest flooding and tornadoes to hit the South, including New Orleans. “That song is not obviously the perfect song choice to release as a single to radio, for obvious reasons. It’s over six minutes long to begin with…” Hale said. “Not exactly tailor-made as a ‘hit song’ for pop radio… But after seeing what’s been happening down South, I just felt like it was the right choice for where we are right now. We wrote the song based on what I’d seen down in Biloxi, Mississippi doing reconstruction work with my church and the Red Cross. And this was Hurricane Katrina we’re talking about. Years later, things were just as bad as they were right after the hurricane hit. It was very sad, very hard to see how little was being done by the government. So that’s where that song came from. But the people we helped, you know, the looks on their faces after they saw their houses rebuilt… man that was why we were down there. It was priceless. Then came the BP Oil Spill, right? And then this new series of floods and tornadoes… it’s like when will it ever end?! So the song still works. It’s still appropriate even though the country has elected a new president and everything appears to have changed…. for some  of us maybe, but not for everyone. Not for the people of New Orleans.”
The title track “Ballad On Third Avenue (Beautiful Losers)” was the first song to gain major traction at radio, helping bolster the album into the CMJ Top 150 on college radio where it stayed for several months. The second single, “I Walk Alone” was a shortened and remixed version of the album version. Worked by producer/engineer Zach Ziskin, the song was Hale’s first foray into the Triple A radio format (Adult Alternative) where it gained airplay on over one-hundred stations throughout the United States. “Scene in San Francisco”, the opening track on the new album was released to online radio stations only and may still be promoted to terrestrial radio stations after “New Orleans Dreams.”
Of this latest venture, Hale commented “Man I hope that every living breathing person on earth buys the song or downloads it from iTunes so we can raise a truckload of money for the people down there. It’s ninety-nine cents, yeah, but collectively we could make a huge difference.”

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: