ED HALE ANNOUNCES SUMMER WEST COAST TOUR DATES

A rare treat for fans of singer-songwriter-recording artist Ed Hale who live on the West Coast, the artist’s record label (Dying Van Gogh) has confirmed that Hale will be performing in four West Coast cities in the month of August in support of his Ballad On Third Avenue album. Ballad has been the biggest selling album of the artist’s career and the highest charting thus far, reaching #14 on the CMJ Most Added Chart. It showed Hale taking yet another leap in his constant genre-jumping musical explorations – this time to a minimalist, stripped down all acoustic sound primarily composed of acoustic guitars and other stringed instruments (even the Russian “balalaika” makes several appearances), piano, bass, and lush cello and string arrangements.
The news was first announced by the International Pop Overthrow Festival, that Ed Hale and band will be performing at all 4 dates of their West Coast Tour circuit this summer. The long-running IPO – one of this summer’s few tours not cancelling dates — is a veritable feast for music lovers and fans of catchy power-pop which often showcases the best artists of contemporary music each year.  Hale’s first West Coast show will be in Los Angeles, at The Joint on Sunset Strip, on Saturday August 7th, with subsequent stops in Portland, OR, Seattle, WA and Vancouver BC. Dates, times, and venues can be accessed from Hale’s website, www.edhale.com or the Official IPO Festival website, www.internationalpopoverthrow.comHale will also be conducting media interviews while on tour in these cities.
Hale will be performing 45 minute sets with a four piece group comprised of some of Brooklyn’s thriving music scene’s best players, the same guitar, bass, piano, and cello setup that he’s used in all of his live concerts to support his latest album. “Haunting,” “Irresistibly catchy,” and “instantly recognizable melodies that stick in your head for days” are some of the phrases used by the press to describe the singer’s latest critically acclaimed work. Which is exactly what Hale and company bring to the stage in their live performances — accompanied by lush, ambient, often open-wide improvisational acoustic music with Hale’s Bowiesque baritone soaring in and out of the hypnotizing music the band creates behind him – similar to Tim or Jeff Buckley or Muse’s Matthew Bellamy, a style the singer started calling “whisper pop” upon the album’s release.
In a whirlwind year that showed Ed Hale doing everything from skirting the globe meeting with Iranian dignitaries (including a stop at the UN to meet with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad), or tribal Village Chiefs in West Africa to continuing to run his New York based uber-cool Dying Van Gogh Records label, a year certainly climaxed by the singer’s multi-cultural lavish public wedding in Manhattan to Persian beauty Nahal Mishel-Ghashghai, it is good to see Ed Hale back doing what he does best. Fans of the singer hope that these West Coast shows are just the tip of the iceberg and may hint at a full-blown US Tour, but at the very least they show that making music still reigns supreme in the life of the Mercurial Renaissance Man.
Saturday August 7th Los Angeles, CA – The Joint 9:30PM
Friday August 13th Portland, OR – East End 10PM
Friday August 20th Seattle, WA – El Corazon 10PM
Friday August 27th Vancouver, BC – Railway Club 8:30PM
ARTIST WEBSITES: www.edhale.comwww.myspace.com/edhalewww.facebook.com/edhalemusic
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ED HALE WEST COAST SUMMER TOUR CITIES AND DATES COMING IN!

Dying Van Gogh Records has confirmed that Ed Hale and band will tour as promised in support of his latest Ballad On Third Avenue solo album. Starting on July 23rd 2010 in San Diego and ending in Vancouver, British Colombia five weeks later, the band will also perform shows in Los Angeles, Fresno, Sacramento, Lake Tahoe, San Francisco, Eureka, Eugene, Portland, Bend, Tacoma, Spokane, and Seattle. Four of the concerts will be at the International Pop Overthrow festival series: Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver.
The concerts will feature at least the same five piece lineup Hale has been performing with over the last six months since the new solo album’s release: Hale, seated as he’s been for all of the dates supporting the new album, on acoustic guitar and vocals; accompanied by piano, keyboards, cello, and bass guitar.  Drums may or may not find a place on stage with the band this time out. “The last show we did was at the IPO concert in New York and we didn’t have Derek there [drummer], and frankly we all thought it actually sounded better. You could hear more of the subtle intricacies and melodies that all the other more melodic instruments were playing without the pounding of the drums,” Hale commented. “I think it just has to do with the idea of these songs being acoustic, very soft and intimate. We also tend to be able to improvise a lot more without drums… the crowd loves it, it’s trance-like man, and let’s face it, that’s a dream come true for us to be able to just go off like that into these nether worlds of sound whenever we want to and break free from the rhythm completely. We can’t easily do that with drums on board.”
Cities and dates are being posted on ReverbNation.com and on the Ed Hale Page on Facebook so check periodically as more cities are added. No plans yet for Mid West or East Coast have been announced.

ED HALE ADDS TWO NEW NEW YORK CITY SHOWS

Ed Hale and band just announced two new concert appearances, both in New York. The Transcendence singer/songwriter/guitarist just released his latest solo album, the critically acclaimed Ballad On Third Avenue – a melodic gem and lyrical milestone for Hale that sounds and feels like an homage to getting lost and losing in the streets of New York and still coming out winning. Tour dates so far have been few and far between; even though the album stayed in the college radio charts all summer and the first single, the anthemic “I Walk Alone”, has been tearing it up on commercial radio making Hale more and more a household name for the emo set. Dying Van Gogh Records assures that Hale will add more tour dates as the album gains more traction at radio. For now fans will have to settle for the few that crop up now and then. Two such happen to be in the Big Apple. Stay tuned for additional updates.
October 2nd, 2009 Friday Night – New York City, NY USA – Fall Fest – Christ Church – 6:30 PM. Corner of 60th st. and Park Avenue. Tickets $10 at the door. Two hours of bands. Ed Hale is one of the featured artists. Band will consist of Hale on vocals and acoustic guitar, Peter Capelle on piano, and a cellist. Will perform 4 songs from new album Ballad On Third Avenue.
November 7th, 2009 Saturday – New York City, NY USA – International Pop Overthrow Festival – 3:30 PM Sharp. Kenny’s Castaways 157 Bleecker St. New York 212 979-9762 $10 at door gets you in for all acts that day and night till midnight. FULL SIX-PIECE BAND CONCERT featuring acoustic guitar, piano, cello, bass, drums, mellotron, and vocals – performing songs from new album Ballad On Third Avenue.

PEACE, LOVE, AND MORTAR – RECORDING ARTIST ED HALE RELEASES TOUR SCHEDULE BLAZING A REFRESHINGLY NEW UNCONVENTIONAL APPROACH

“With a new solo album in the stores and spinning on radio from coast to coast, Transcendence singer-guitarist Ed Hale will jet from Vancouver, British Columbia to his current hometown of New York City for a day, then on to Cartagena, Colombia in South America, then Sao Paulo, Brazil, and then of all places Lahore, Pakistan for three days before returning home for what one assumes will be some much needed sleep.”
Recording and promoting a new album in the music world of today is a cookie-cutter process that has become as predictable as it is difficult in an ever increasingly competitive music marketplace. With the advent of home-studio recording and internet distribution over the last ten years, talent is no longer a prerequisite for “releasing an album” to the public – whether it be a band of well-to-do 13 year old suburban pre-teens who dream of becoming the next Plain White T’s, or a group of pot-bellied off-duty cops who once dreamed of being the next big thing back when Led Zeppelin were topping the charts, anyone can record a collection of songs, call it an “album” and unleash it to the unsuspecting masses. This has made the music business one fiercely competitive industry to make a living in. The steps artists are supposed to take along the way are routine: record, release, promote, and tour. There was a time way back when this process worked. The only glitch is that now there are tens of thousands of would-be next big things of all ages doing the same thing every day of the week three-hundred and sixty-five days a year.
The statistics don’t lie: over ten-thousand bands applied to perform at last year’s biggest independent music festival, South by Southwest in Austin Texas. On any given week over five thousand new CDs are released into a flooded marketplace – all expecting radio airplay and big sales. The artists, no matter how big or small, are expected to follow the same routine regardless of how difficult or futile the actions or results are. Bands tour up and down and back and forth across the country in rented vans living on peanut and butter jelly sandwiches playing for two to ten drunken stragglers in nameless, faceless bars or clubs or any venue who will have them – knowing full well that they aren’t going to make a a dime from doing it. They don’t do it for the money though. They do it because according to legend, and some crusty higher-ups, that’s just the way that you do it. Most bands expect and accept that unless they break big with a song on the radio or in a big Hollywood Blockbuster or the new iPod commercial – all highly unlikely, though still possible – that touring after they release a new album will set them even further in the hole of debt they already incurred recording their initial album. But they do it anyway. Touring, no matter how lacking in fun, profit, or glamor is supposed to at least serve to lend credibility to an emerging artist’s reputation. Or so it is said.
Recording artist Ed Hale, best known as the singer-songwriter-guitarist for the rock band Transcendence, knows the process well. Having just released his eighth studio album, the majestic acoustic pop jewel entitled Ballad On Third Avenue (the album debuted at #14 on the CMJ Most Added Chart last week), he is accustomed to being asked to jump through the usual hoops of the contemporary circus that is today’s music business. “Record, release, radio and tour man… that’s the game. But we’re playing it a bit different this time out,” the singer said over a cup of espresso after a two hour interview on Canada’s Vancouver Persian Radio Show Saturday night. The self-proclaimed “Ambassador” has been giving a lot of interviews since the June 16th release of his new solo album. And his schedule over the next six months is more jam-packed than a rental van full of scruffy-haired indie rockers on their way to Cleveland. But the topics of conversation in said interviews are remarkably different and unexpected for a singer promoting a new album – as is his tour schedule. (The Vancouver interview was based on Hale’s involvment with a side project of his, the PeaceWithIran.com website, and was by all accounts an activist lover’s dream – with Hale ebulliently excited about his latest infatuation – Iran – and emphatically declaring that “people from all over the planet need to come together to support this mega-revolutionary people’s movement of our Iranian brothers and sisters at this historic moment” – hardly the usual banter of top 20 college radio pop-stars).  Over the next three weeks in fact Hale will jet from British Columbia to his hometown of New York City for a day, then on to Cartagena, Colombia in South America, then Sao Paulo, Brazil, and eventually of all places to Lahore, Pakistan for three days before returning home for what one assumes will be some much needed sleep.
“If we’re lucky, by the time I get back to the States in a few weeks the album and the single will be doing well enough [on the radio] to actually warrant a real tour. That’s the goal. It’s not that I don’t want to play now. Our last show in Miami was amazing! And I would love to see that beautiful night repeated in every major city in America. Truly. Because I love doing it. But for one thing I have a ton of prior commitments. And two, we’re not going to jam into a bus or van and tour just because that’s what’s expected of us now because we have a new album out,” Hale commented. “In the meantime there are all these other opportunities that keep coming up that are just out of this world cool and awesome. And more importantly, they serve a greater good than just promoting a new album. Anyone can put out a new album and talk about it. And they do. Obviously. But spend ten days working outside in the hot sun on the equator pounding a hammer… that’s a whole different thing.” Hale is referring to the ten days he will spend in a poor area of Colombia doing construction work helping to build a local church and community center. (For all his glitter and glam rock posing, Ed Hale is surprisingly unafraid to wear his religion on his sleeve – right next to his bleeding heart and frantic soul searching, another refreshing characteristic of the singer in a world often full of pomp and posterboy pouting.) It’s an odd activity to participate in in the middle of a national PR and radio campaign for a new rock album. But like all things Ed Hale over the last eight years since Transcendence released their debut album Rise and Shine – where the band blended world music styles with modern rock while the young singer sang in some six languages, sometimes within the same song – it’s a refreshingly unique approach to a normally tried (or is that tired(?) and true process.
Between the nail pounding in Cartagena, Hale will also hold meetings with peace activists and members of local government in Bogota on behalf of the peace organization Fellowship of Reconcilliation (FOR). “Making contact and connections, letting them know we’re here for them if they need us. It’s all about building that coalition stronger and stronger so we can see this goal of real world peace happen in our lifetimes. The meetings are a formality for the most part, but they’re still important.” From there he flies to the capital of Brazil, Sao Paulo – the singer has been having a public love affair with that country and its music for years – to appear on the country’s most popular and longest running late night talk show, Programa Amaury Jr. to perform songs from his new album and a few other songs that he will sing in the country’s native Portuguese and talk about his love for Brazilian music and culture. Finally the singer will fly to the Al Queda infested metropolis of Lahore in Pakistan to film a documentary about two schools owned and operated by a non-profit American organization, www.anew-beginning.org. A CNBC camera crew will follow Hale around for three days while he puts on his “Ambassador” persona and clowns it up while attempting to shed light on the plight of Pakistani girls if they are not enrolled in a school full time – in a nutshell: enforced slavery, prostitution, and human trafficking. “These two Americans I know have taken on this ridiculously challenging task of saving the lives of like over a hundred girls. And they’re getting nothing from it. I mean, they’re not doing it for the money obviously. This is total ‘service to others’ and I am humbled to my knees thinking about how selfless they are for doing it. So I want to help spread the word about their schools. Gather up support in any way we can for them, financial support, cards, letters, supplies, whatever will help them succeed in their quest to make the lives of these children better. They’ve got a website. Let us all use it and let’s keep this party going. Serving others has become the coolest trend out there. Right? So why not take advantage of that and help as many people as we can while it’s hot? You know?”
At some point you think Ed Hale might break into an equally enthusiastic exploration of the music and songs on his new disc – an adventurous foray into a softer more intimate music style than the last eight year’s worth of Transcendence era Bowiesque Brit pop that his band has become famous for, but he doesn’t. Instead he continues to ruminate on the possibilities of a world made better by turning ‘helping others’ into “cool,” a subject he is passionate about to say the least. Though one gets the idea that the time will come. If his new album continues to do as well on radio and with sales as it has in its opening weeks, at some point Ed Hale is going to have to give in and stop pretending that he isn’t the gifted songsmith with that golden voice that he really is. But for the moment he seems to be having a blast acting his Superman save-the-world role and in the process blazing a new trail for future artists who also see the potential in taking a less traditional approach in playing rockstar. Refreshing indeed.
July 24 to August 2, 2009 – Cartagena, Colombia South America – Ed Hale travels to one of the poorest areas of this coastal town with 25 others and UMCOR in order to build a permanent multi-level, multi-function church and community center for the townspeople. As always the trip will be filmed and edited to create several episodes to be posted to the Transcendent Television channel on YouTube.
August 3rd to August 9th 2009 – Sao Paulo, Brazil South America – Ed Hale will appear on the Programa Amaury Jr. television show, the most popular and longest running late night talk show in the country. Ed and a few members of Transcendence will perform songs from his new album as well as songs from their Rise and Shine CD sung in portuguese like “So quero um xodo” and “Eu sei que vou t’amar.”
August 10 to August 18, 2009 – Lahore, Pakistan – Ed Hale travels to one of the most tumultuous and impoverished cities in the world with a CNBC film crew to create a multi-episode documentary about an amazingly generous and adventurous American couple who have started two schools for Pakistani girls – 60 girls in each school. As long as the girls stay in school they stay off the streets and out of human trafficing and prostitution and slavery. More information about this inspirational couple and thier admirable quest can be had at www.anew-beginning.org. As always the trip will be filmed and the episodes posted to the Transcendent Television channel on YouTube.