New York, NY (June 12, 2012)—NY Noise recently produced an original song, “Land of Dreams,” featuring Rosanne Cash, for the Brand USA worldwide “Discover America” campaign.
Rosanne Cash is featured in the ad singing the song she co-wrote with NY Noise composer John Leventhal, which also features Los Lobos’ David Hidalgo, Brazilian chanteuse Bebel Gilberto and New Orleans’ Treme Brass Band.
When agency J. Walter Thompson, New York, began to put together the concept for the “Discover America” campaign, designed to promote tourism to the US, the musical idea was to license and re-record an iconic song that sang the praises of the country without any inherent chest beating and jingoism. The performer would also be iconic, someone whose presence embodied the “American spirit.”
As a major recording artist in her own right and a prominent member of one of America’s most influential musical families, Rosanne Cash was JWT’s first choice as performer. The only problem was they had no song. Of the very few available licensing possibilities, nothing completely met JWT’s criteria.
JWT’s director of music, Paul Greco, had already tapped NY Noise to produce the project, and knew the company and Cash had a long relationship. The solution was for Cash and Leventhal to write an original song.
Leventhal noted that he and Cash wanted to keep “Land of Dreams” in the classic American folk song tradition. “I loved the challenge of writing a song about the USA that wasn’t coming from an overly sentimental, bragging or even a ‘land of the free, home of the brave’ kind of place,” Leventhal says. “From the start, our intention was to write a good song and present the country the way it really is: inviting, inclusive and eclectic both geographically and culturally.”
NY Noise
www.nynoise.com
