New Video Tribute is Group Effort Between US Navy and Grammy® Winning Nashville Indie Artist

NASHVILLE, TN (January 25, 2010) - How does one offer sincere thanks to the sacrifices borne by military personnel and their families? In Nashville, Tennessee, it’s done with a song and music video. The newly released “Flyer Song” is a combined effort between sailors on a US Navy carrier, and Nashville singer/songwriter and Grammy Award winner Leslie Ellis. The music video is a tribute to both pilots and families of service personnel stationed around the globe.

Captain Scott Berg on the USS John C. Stennis heard Ellis’ recording and decided to use it as the soundtrack for a video tribute to the families of his pilots. “I thought Leslie’s song would be perfect,” Berg said.

The work took two years to produce. A media team aboard the USS Stennis created the video, with additional footage shot in Nashville to round out the story and a recording of the song produced specifically for the video by Ron Oates.

“The song is told from the standpoint of a woman who hates that her husband flies jets because she’s afraid that something will happen to him,” said Ellis, “but even so she sings, ‘I won’t ask my baby not to fly.’” Ellis said that her song seeks to acknowledge heroes “in the air and here at home.”

Ellis recently posted the video on YouTube, prompting tens of thousands of hits and touching comments by viewers. “The reaction was so overwhelming, I created the Flyer Song Blog,” said Ellis. The site is dedicated to sharing personal anecdotes and encouraging dialogue among viewers.

The video and blog are available for access on Ellis’ website at http://leslieellis.com/FlyerSongVideo.html

LESLIE ELLIS - BIO
Grammy® Award winning vocalist Leslie Ellis performs live across the USA and Europe with hit songwriter Casey Kelly. Through her career Leslie has sung with many artists including Celine Dion on “My Heart will Go On” – from the movie Titanic (for which Leslie won the Grammy) and Thomas Dolby on his latest album, Forty featured singer on “Hyperactive.” She sang the original soundtrack song, “Six Times around the Sun” for the CBS mini-series, Perfect Murder, Perfect Town and has done countless TV/radio jingles and song demos for SONY Music.

In 2007 her self-penned “Flyer Song” was adopted by the US Navy and made into a video tribute. Since then Leslie has re-recorded the song with production by Ron Oates, and shot additional video footage which has culminated in a magnificent final presentation of the song and the video. She has also written songs that were recorded by The Bellamy Brothers, NYC based recording artist David Ippolito, and in 1994, four of Leslie’s original songs appeared in the Broadway-bound musical Cowboy Café, and were performed live at the show’s premiere in North Carolina.

As an actress, Leslie has appeared on television and the Broadway stage - Cats, La Cage Aux Folles and City of Angles, among others - and in 2007 starred in an award winning independent film, My Name Is Wallace, which was invited to the Cannes Film Festival. Leslie was also featured in The New, True Charlie Wu, another award winning independent film released late in 2009.

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Contact Information

Leslie Ellis

Artist/Writer

Working Jane Productions

Contact via E-mail