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TRANSCENDENCE singer/songwriter Ed Hale’s New Solo Album Ballad On Third Avenue Released Today!

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“Singer-songwriter Ed Hale, best known over the last few years as the lead singer for the Modern Rock/Brit Pop outfit Transcendence – who have scored numerous hit singles on radio, and in films, and television shows over the years – snuck into the recording studio late last year and produced the most personal and intimate album of his career. (With fellow Transcendence guitarist and Dreaming In Stereo frontman Fernando Perdomo playing engineer and co-producer). Rather than further exploring the seventy’s glam rock or indie rock or world music or Brit Pop that the band is famous for, Hale instead turned inward and turned the volume way, way down; creating a surprisingly quiet and simple yet moving and at times haunting acoustic pop album.”

“Gone are the pounding drums, squealing guitars, thumping bass and that Transcendence ‘wall of noise and sound.” Instead the album’s 11 tracks are a sparse and luxuriant tangle of acoustic guitars, pianos, organs, xylophones, lush cello lines, and mellotron flourishes that set a subtle, gorgeous sonic backdrop perfectly fit to back up a lyrically poignant and confessional masterpiece of infinite beauty and tenderness. The majestic acoustic-pop and vulnerable intimacy of Ed Hale’s new album Ballad On Third Avenue will feel right at home to the same crowd that loves the music of Wes Anderson films, Rubber Soul era Beatles, James Blunt, Kings of Convenience, Bright Eyes, David Gray, Simon and Garfunkel, or even Donovan or Nick Drake. From start to finish the deceptively simple collection of songs sucks you in and leaves you moved, smiling, and dreamy-eyed.”


:: To listen to all the songs or buy the CD click here to go to Amazon.com


:: To listen to all the songs or download the album click here to go to the iTunes Music Store.

TRACK LISTING

  1. SCENE IN SAN FRANCISCO
  2. I WALK ALONE
  3. HELLO MY DOVE
  4. INCOMPATIBLE
  5. BALLAD ON THIRD AVENUE (BEAUTIFUL LOSERS)
  6. IT FEELS TOO GOOD
  7. EVERYWHERE SHE IS THERE
  8. NEW ORLEANS DREAMS
  9. ARCHITECT’S DAUGHTER
  10. THOUGHTS OF CALIFORNIA
  11. NEVER LET ME GO AGAIN
For more detailed album information, pictures, videos, and all the latest news: www.edhale.com

Ed Hale On Mission Trip in Ghana, Africa

While the band awaits the release of their new All Your Heroes Become Villains CD, and mixing and mastering of their second new CD, The Great Mistake, both due out in early Winter, Ed Hale made a quick mission-trip across the pond to the country of Ghana, on the northwest coast of Africa for a homebuilding trip with Habitat for Humanity. Two weeks. Two houses completed in the small village of Mabang outside of Tepa. Said Hale, “We built almost two complete houses. We kicked some serious butt for a small team of 19 Americans. And we left HOMES for people who had none. It was humbling. It was magnificent. And it is very addictive. Once you go to Africa you never come back. It stays in your heart, beneath your nails, under your skin. The people, the terrain, the sights and the smells, the feelings. It is all I think about now. Africa… Africa is where it’s all at now. It’s the new thing.”

Luckily, Ed is speaking metaphorically, as he is indeed back and the band is gearing up for the release of two new CDs this year that were a long time in the making. Stay tuned for more updates.

To watch a video series of the trip on YouTube click here.

ghana homes side of the roada view out the windowaverage roadsidebustling enterprise on the side of many roadsWho needs a Prada pursethe childrenFree enterpriseGhanaian countrysideMountains and forestsa houseOut the windowSide road economyAkwaabaAnimalsLaying the foundation

Ed Hale Lends a Hand in the Gulf Coast

On Friday June 30th, TRANSCENDENCE lead singer Ed Hale boarded a plane headed for Gulfport, Mississippi. This isn’t unique. Entertainers travel. A lot. But the reason for the trip was not for a concert with his band, nor for the recently launched new TV series, Transcendent Television. Rather it was for a week’s worth of manual labor in the hot Mississippi summer sun on a home rebuilding mission trip. He would spend seven days helping to rebuild homes of victims of last year’s devastating hurricane Katrina. This was the second trip he has made this year.

Ed writes in from Biloxi, Mississippi:

“In the simplest terms, since I have written about it a lot already, America’s Gulf Coast still looks like a giant bomb went off there. Tens of thousands of people are still without homes. Living in trailers or family’s homes, or in shelters, or nursing homes. Buildings and restaurants are demolished or gone entirely… very devastating to behold your first time here. Looks like a third world country down there. If there is money coming in from the government to help, you don’t see it down there yet. Perhaps they are still building infrastructure, I don’t know.

“That’s the bad news. But the good news is that every week tons of new groups fly down there from somewhere in America to help those people rebuild. When you are on the plane it is literally filled with people from all over the US who are flying in to help for a week. I have made two trips so far. You meet people from all over the US on these planes. You usually can stay somewhere for free and your food is also provided. All you have to do is work all day.

“All over the region you see groups of people of all ages building homes or clearing rubble of some kind. All volunteers. You can jump on a group through the Red Cross, UMCOR, Hands On America, or Habitat for Humanity, or through other groups as well I am sure. I go through UMCOR, the group which trained me. I have also been trained through the Red Cross. You can look up any of these groups online to find a trip down there to help. There is always one leaving every week.

“Normally you sleep at a hostile or a church on an air-mattress on the floor which you bring yourself so the accommodations are pretty sparse but you get used to it pretty quickly. The fact is that after a day or two on the field helping these older people rebuild their homes so they can move back in them, you forget about your sleeping arrangements or the fact that you may be sharing one bathroom with twenty other people and you just get really focused on helping all these poor people get their lives back as best they can.

“Their stories break your heart and you cannot believe sometimes that it is really happening. It is the looks on their faces as they come to their house every afternoon to check on the progress that keeps you going. It is so heart warming and inspiring that you don’t ever want to leave… you just want to stay till the job gets done. But the truth is that it will be years before this region is rebuilt and all these people are back in their homes. So you just play your little part for that week and go back to your life. But the gift that you seem to receive is immense. A very powerful experience. It is truly a ‘service to others’ experience. That’s the new “hot thing” now it seems, service to others. Because it feels so damn good. Bout time. Once you go down there once, it is almost as if your whole life changes forever. The mission of your life seems to change. Your focus changes. It is very humbling. And perhaps you repent and cry a bit as you come to realize how selfish and self obsessed and materialistic you have been throughout your life.

“As painful as 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina were, I truly believe that these tragedies somehow changed us for the better. America seems to have woken up to a new sort of giving mentality… People from all walks of life are filling planes headed for the Gulf Coast taking their vacation time from their jobs to lend a helping hand for a week to do hard labor in the hot sun for no apparent material gain but just to help. It is truly awe inspiring.

More comments on some of the photos:

“This particular house like most of them was filled to the ceiling with water during the storm. Everything these people owned in the world was gone, destroyed. The couple that lived there woke up to the water and ran upstairs to the attic. And that’s where they stayed for the night and the next day and the next. Without food or water. Horribly sad. Their whole house had to be gutted. They lost everything. The house was completely gutted from floor to ceiling. The house had to be re-studded, re-insulated, re-wired, re-drywalled, re-floored, re-ceiling… everything… and we tried our best to get a little portion of that done. A group of twenty of us did a good portion of that to four different houses in a week for people too poor or sick to do it themselves.

“In a few of the pix you will see us with some older people. These are the actual home owners. Every few days, sometimes everyday in some cases, they would stop by to check on the progress of their home. In one of the pix you see this old lady crying because she is trying to express how shocked and happy she is that strangers keep flying down to help her rebuild her home and don’t ask anything in return. You feel blessed to be one of those strangers.

“And yes, I would be remiss to not mention that it occurs to one more than once that all the people flying down to help are young and white and the people needing the help are old and black. It tugs at one’s soul subtly and unceasingly with its implications.

“They were calling us angels, because we came when no one else would. These people are mostly old poor people in their sixties or seventies, mostly sick people with no money and no where else to turn, and all of them are African American. The looks on their faces everyday when they come into their house to check on the progress… man no words can describe the joy in their faces when they see walls going up or roofs being put back on their destroyed houses after so many months… and no words can describe the feeling we have as the blessed souls who are so privileged to be allowed to be a part of it…

ed hale, wallace setrana, and postman Jacksonsomeone left a guitar in this church we were staying atgood times celebrating on our last nightme and meadow from the sopranosChris Andrews doing whatever it takes to make it happenThe ring...Chowing on food sent to us from our freinds back homeLittle Dawn sleeping on the planeEd Hale and Rebecca McCain making breakfast happenMy first teamThe StudMastersFramingNo shaving till we get back to NYC babyMe and Marsh up on the roofPutting on the roof

The General Speaks, a powerful interactive photo gallery.

In August of 2004, an interesting character emerged amidst all the political activism going on in the world. These sightings were caught on the street and photographer Jill Kahn invited “The General”, as he became to be known, to a photo session. Later The Ambassador jumped in on the project and commissioned Mouse Media, Inc. to create an photo gallery. The project eventually evolved into a powerful interative media presentation. To watch it click here.

WARNING: Movie contains violent content, viewer discretion is advised.

The Transcendence Diaries reaches 150,000 readership in February.

Up from a respectable 111,200 readership in late December 2004, the Transcendence Diaries hit a new milestone on February 2nd 2005 – a record 150,183 unique visitors logged in to read the latest adventures of Fishy and the entire cast of characters that make regular appearances in the blog known as the Transcendence Diaries.

The Transcendence Diaries was an experimental project started by Ed Hale and TMG Records art director Eduardo Silva in early 2002. Before the advent of what are now commonly referred to as “blogs,” short for ‘web logs,’ the idea was to post a daily journal for transcendence fans to read the latest in the daily saga of life in a rock and roll band and anything else Ed felt like writing about each day. Soon designer Paula Kobrinsky was enlisted to build a frameset interface that would ensure privacy from pesky search engines — as one may notice, there are no URL address bars in the diaries whatsoever. It is a very unique set-up. This was done deliberately to avoid casual surfers from happening upon the diaries. The Transcendence Diaries are a private affair reserved for Transcendence fans.

The entries have continued to be updated on a daily basis for three years. The Transcendence Diaries now clock in at over 1,100 pages, with over 59,000 separate files having been uploaded between text, graphics, and music files.

Of course, it’s only a matter of time till the infamous Fishy is dragged out into the streets, hung, stoned to death, or burned at the stake for his rebellious and often insane ramblings. But until that time, all is well. Log on now to read what all the fuss is about before it’s too late. And thank you for reading.

Friends and fans from around the world speak up about the Bush reelection and the ongoing war in Iraq

In the week after the American presidential election, Ed set out to contact friends from around the world to get a general idea of people’s feelings in various countries about the reelection of George W. Bush in America . The responses were varied, but heated and passionate among many in that first week.

“From the project I noticed that although almost in any circle you can just as easily find a conservative as you can a democrat in America, because the country is so split today; but it seems that in the world of music, art, and entertainment, of which the large majority of the people that I know come from, the general sentiment is so overwhelmingly liberal that I don’t think I received one voice of support for the Bush reelection from anywhere in the world,” Ed commented. “I myself have my own opinions, and have been quite vocal about them, but still I was very surprised.”

The comments were posted to the Guestmap of the site: http://ourmessagetotheworld.com/ Post your own comments here.