At the ball Brian McKnight a talented Grammy Nominated singer and song writer performed the title track for the film called "Yes We Can".
 
Initially, we were going to be the title track for the film, but when the producers took the project to Hollywood, the Hollywood folks decided that they needed a name that people would recognize to be the title track composer for the film.  
 
I also met Thomas Howard and his wife Maria Arita-Howard the producers for the film from Veridicus Films at the Ball in DC.
 
The next day, I met Tracy McConaughy a fan and friend of the Total Experience Gospel Choir and someone that Pastor Patrinell Wright graciously put me in touch with, and who offered to give me a ticket to attend the inauguration.  We went to congressman Norm Dicks office on Monday January 19th, to pickup the tickets and meet the congressman.  While there, we had our photos taken with him and I gave him a copy of the album 'Seven Songs For America And One For The World..
 
The next morning we were in line at 6:00 am to wait for nearly five hours to get into inauguration.  We didn't have a great vantage point, but we were there and glad of it.  I spent the afternoon filming the scenes from around the capitol, it was amazing.  I got fairly close to the presidents motorcade.  On the evening of inauguration, I attended the Southern States Regional Ball where I was planning on meeting up with our old friend Edith Childs.  Unfortunately she did not make it to the event due to some transportation issues.  But I had a great time anyway and was really close to President Barack Obama and the first lady Michelle.  The band that played was Susan Tedschi if you get a chance to listen to her work, I highly recommend it.  They absolutely rocked the old DC Armory, which is where the Ball was.

I stayed at a DC policeman's house who was working double time and decided to rent his house and stay with his sister.  Also Tracy was able to grab a second room there for one night, since she did have tickets but didn't have lodging.  We were only fifteen blocks from the capitol.

You can see some pictures from the trip on our web site or visit us on Flickr 

Also on flickr there are photos of Election Night 2008.

We have been fortunate and blessed to work with so many great people this year.

A very special thanks to Jay Alan & Joshua Stanton of Avenue Films for making both videos happen so fast and getting all the footage to Texas in time.  And also to Geoff and Jonathon at London Bridge Studios for doing such a great job with the sound engineering.

Warm regards!

Jon Bergevin
Bergevin Brothers Music, LLC

Links in case any of the embedded ones fail.

Two part Inauguration Video Series: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=69A0B4D9B1C33703
Fired Up, Ready To Go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyJ72iZ3tW4
What Victory Looked Like in South Carolina: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhqqOR68VSs
An American Dream: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c92bbYZXw0A
Brian McKnight: http://www.brian-mcknight.com/
Veridicus Films: http://www.veridicusfilms.com/
Susan Tecschi: http://www.susantedeschi.com/
Bergevin Brothers Web Site: http://www.BergevinBrothersMusic.com
Bergevin Brothers Flickr: http://www.Flickr.com/BergevinBrothers
Bergevin Brothers YouTube: http://www.YouTube.com/BergevinBrothers

This video is about the making of the new song we created and recorded on Election Night 2008. It is a night we will never forget. We hope you enjoy it. Jon & Joe

This is a new music video we recorded on Election Night 2008. It was a night we'll never forget. Hope you enjoy it. Jon & Joe

We honored to be invited to perform music from our new album "Seven Songs For America" to help raise funds for Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

We were there to help energize the attendees and based on the participation from the crowd and the standing ovation, we achieved that goal.

We were joined at the Museum of History And Industry by the ever amazing Pastor Patrinell Wright and her Total Experience Gospel Choir.

Jake Bergevin our brother, talented singer and trumpeter was in the house as well and really helped deliver an amazing performance of "Fired Up, Ready To Go".

We opened the evening during seating with some Jazz and played "All Blues & Blue In Green" by Miles Davis and a funky version of Summer Time by George Gershwin. (Jon on piano, Jake on trumper, Matthew Kerschenbaum on Bass and Shawn Conner on drums).

After everyone was seated in the packed auditorium, we opened with the choir with a performance of "I Feel Amazing Yes I Do" the 4th track on the new album. Followed by a short introductory welcoming by Jon and then a performance of the song "Virtues" the 5th track on the album sung by the amazingly talented singer Camila Recchi and the choir.

We were then given a break to let the guest speakers give thier speeches.

Roberta Riley, Former Counsel for Legal and International Affairs, Planned Parenthood of Western Washington

Nancy Amidei, Community Activist

Darcy Burner, Candidate for U.S. Congress, Washington's 8th District

After the speeches, we were invited back onto the stage where Jon introduced Joe as his excellent writing partner and thanked Pat and the choir for allowing us the excellent opportunity to work closely with them to help amplify the message that the country is thirsting for and exists in Barack Obama's platform and message.  Joe told the story about how this project came to be starting with meeting Barack in December 2007 and also mentioned the album and the new documentary that just came out in blockbuster called "Barack Obama: Who is this guy?" that we are in and our music is used on.

After Joe spoke, we launched into "Fired Up, Ready To Go" sung by Jake and Pat backed up by the choir.  The room was energized.  We were joined by Jessica Howard on Tambourine.  It was so fun to see how excited everyone got when we played this song and it was a blast to perform to such an enthused crowd of Barack Obama supporters.  Our aim was to help them feel inspired to go out and make the calls, register the voters and get the vote out for November 4th.  Hopefully the music spurs them into action.  No official numbers were made public about the fund raiser at this time, but I heard unofficially that it raised 10's of thousands of dollars for Barack and his campaign.

We are honored to help in this time of need and are blessed with talent, generosity, willingness and helpfulness of many, many people.  We plan on continuing our efforts to provide world class music and inspiration to the movement that Barack Obama has started in America!.

For more information about our album and the documentary please visit.

http://www.BergevinBrothersMusic.com

A huge thanks to the women that made this significant and exciting event happen.

"Women for Obama Band Together" -- A grassroots-powered, pro-Obama movement that is not affiliated with the campaign (just a group of 12 women in Seattle who wanted to make a difference....).  

We are witnessing the power of music to influence and delight and are becoming more engaged in democracy than ever before.  This amazing process has been a gift and inspired us to continue to work hard and share with as many people as we can.

We were invited last week to come to a meeting for the 48th district democrats.  This is their monthly meeting.  We were allowed to speak quickly at the end of the meeting and talk about the music we've created in the context of having people use it for campaigning as well as be interested in helping with our hurricane efforts. 

At the end of the meeting I got up breifly and opened with "We're music peddlers".  Which is the first thing that popped out of my mouth (sometimes an uncomfortable trait that can either work really well or not so well or even very poorly) depending on the circumstances.  Well in this instance it worked very well.  Mind you this is a group of 40 or so democrats, very tired after a 2.5 hour meeting and with a few congressman and states representatives in the room.  I explained quickly what we were up to and then played the music "Fired Up, Ready To Go" from our new album "Seven Songs For America".

Mostly people ignored me or a few came up and pretended to listen.  I was kind of asking myself what good I'd done by being there.  Well for starters I learned a lot more about the inner workings of the democratic party.  Also I met Michelle Gregoire who had come out to speak on her mother the Governors behalf.  Also we heard some really good stuff from some Obama team members & organizers.

We stayed to help cleanup, since there were yard signs and various implements all over the room that needed collecting.

We then helped close up the meeting room and walked out with the organizer Diane.  As we helped her to her car and discussed the up and coming East Side Democrats dinner, she was explaining that the schedule was already set and that it probably wouldn't work for us to play our music video as part of the entertainment.  As we were discussing it States Representative Ross Hunter casually walks up and overhears us talking.  I said hello and told him that I was States Representative Deb Eddy's (his peer) neighbor.  We filled him in on the fact that the schedule was set.  I told him that the album had The Total Experience Gospel Choir on it.  He said to Diane (jokingly) "well if the Total Experience wants to do it, we'll make room".

We ended our conversations and thanked Diane for considering us for the dinner.  That evening I went home and called Pastor Patrinell Wright (as I do many nights lately) what with all the music work we have been collaborating on over the past months.  I mentioned Ross's statement about "making room for the choir" and to my surprise she pulled out her calender and said "We will do that".

After finishing the phone call, I drafted an email to Diane stating the fact that the choir would do it and that I'd call her in the AM.

When I called Diane, she said that she had gotten the email and was intrigued by this new development.  She said it would be difficult and couldn't make any promises but she'd take it to the comittee.  She asked how late she could call me that night to let me know.  I said up until 11:00pm. 

As the afternoon and then early evening progressed, I started to think, well they aren't going to have us.

At 10:57pm by my clock the phone rang.  It was Diane.  She said that she'd contacted all but the director for the commitee and that the concensus was a resounding "Yes!".

She didn't think there would be any more argument and confirmed it with us.

Pan forward to the day of the gig Sunday Sep 21,2008.

The choir already had two gigs lined up for that day.  One happened to be in our neighborhood.  So we went to the church that they were doing the service at.  They followed us back to our house and we had a rehearsal and Julie & Pat got sub sandwiches for around 30 people.  The choir took off and went to their afternoon performance.  We met up later at the Newcastle Golf Club and performed two excerpts "Rise Up" and "Fired Up" from the new album.  The governor stayed and listened which was a real honor for all of us.  We followed the Governors chant of "Fired Up! Ready to Go!", "Fired Up!, Ready To Go!", it was very invigorating.

Hello all,

We completed recording the new album 'Seven Songs For America And One for The World' and sent the master to production this week.  We're releasing the album in Denver on the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the first day we'll arrive for the Democratic Convention.

You can listen to the tracks right here on MySpace and see more about what we're up to at

Bergevin Brothers Music

We are sending out some preliminary copies to key people that are in charge of various events and avenues for the music in Denver.

We are super excited about the music and the performances that the amazing artists contributed to the sound.

The goal of this historic Obama-inspired album is to generate funds for those still affected by Katrina and much help is still needed. 

We hope you like it!

Jon & Joe

Hi all,

We wanted to update you all on our progress towards creating this supporter based album for america. 

Yesterday, we completed the instrumental tracks for the remainder of the album.  We had a wonderful session and completed six more tracks that will be included on the album.  The recording was done at Columbia City Theater in Seattle.  We had a great time and made huge progress towards getting this amazing album completed.

Pictures from the session are available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bergevinbrothers/sets/72157606327106661/

Also, if you want to read more about our project and stay up to date with what we're up to, you can visit our web site at:

http://www.BergevinBrothersMusic.com

The CD can be pre-ordered from our site and there is also a way to donate to the project (which helps us with the costs incurred for recording and production).

Thanks and please stay tuned for more.  Tonight we're recording the first vocal session/tracks for the album with the Total Experience Gospel Choir and Holly Phillips.  In addition, Geoffrey Castle will be joining us to record some fiddle on some of the tracks.

We're totally excited about this project and wanted to share our progress.

Warm Regards

The Bergevin Brothers

Our friend BeachSaint posted this video featuring the third song in the series of songs we're creating to support the Obama campaign and the Katrina victims of the gulf coast.