Song For Charlie Foundation Releasing Honorable Album This Friday

The 501c3 non-profit Song for Charlie is releasing an honorable and artist-filled 10-track album, Songs For Charlie: Volume 1, this Friday, May 14 to bring awareness to the tragic passing of Charlie Ternan. This Friday will mark the anniversary of the 22 year-old's death, caused by a counterfeit pill made of fentanyl. Seeking pain relief stemming from a 2018 back surgery, Charlie thought he was buying a Percocet from a dealer on Snapchat. Charlie was just one of several who died in Santa Clara County that weekend from the same cause and is one of thousands who have died from fentanyl poisoning in the United States in this last year alone.

The family-run nonprofit charity is dedicated to raising awareness about 'fentapills' - fake pills made of fentanyl. They encourage young people to choose healthy coping strategies over self-medication by empowering students to learn and share knowledge through providing research tools and promoting peer-to-peer learning programs. Partnering with experts, educators, parents and other influencers, their programs highlight the emerging dangers of self-medication and casual drug use in the fentanyl era and encourage healthier strategies for coping with stress. Click here to watch Ed and Mary Ternan discuss their son's tragic passing and why they founded the Song For Charlie nonprofit on NBC's TODAY show (aired May 10, 2021).

The album, Songs For Charlie: Volume 1, will be exclusively available on Bandcamp with all proceeds going to the Song For Charlie 501c3 nonprofit. The beautifully executed album features artists such as: Adam Brisbin, Christian Lee Hutson (ANTI- Records), Dylan Rodrigue, Eva B. Ross, Jack Symes, Johanna Samuels (Mama Bird Records), Jacksonport, Nick Cianci, Ohtis (Saddle Creek), Steven Van Betten, Will Fox, Wilsen (Secret City Records) and others.

Album preorder is available now on Bandcamp. Purchasers will receive a cover of No Doubt's "It's My Life" recorded by Jack Symes featuring Steven Van Betten and "Song For Charlie," an original song by Jack Symes featuring Johanna Samuels.

Pre-order Songs For Charlie: Volume 1 here.

"I was immediately drawn to this project as someone that has lost multiple loved ones in my life to suicide and struggled with the many weights that come out of loving an addict," shares Johanna Samuels who recorded an inspired rendition of Nirvana's "Lithium" for Songs For Charlie: Volume 1. "With fentanyl, our country has swiftly and heartlessly raised the frequency with which Americans are quite literally killed for profit and my heart breaks for the many struck by these tragedies. The songs on this record all strike chords with me as ones I grew up with...honored to be a part of such a beautiful project."

Orchestrating the Songs For Charlie: Volume 1 project is L.A.-based singer-songwriter Jack Symes. Symes was a dear friend of Charlie and penned the original, "Song For Charlie," that concludes the album's flowing ten-song collection.

"I wrote 'Song For Charlie' the day that Charlie passed in May 2020," says Symes. "Immediately after hearing the news. I was in North Carolina staying with my girlfriend's family and I just isolated myself out on their dock for the day with a notebook and guitar. Even though I was surrounded by her amazing family, I felt really alone and far from home. I think writing the song that day was the only kind of therapy I could get into since I was so far from anyone that knew Charlie. I recorded it the following day on a Zoom handy recorder and sent the demo to Charlie's family and a couple close friends, and that too was a really difficult thing to do. It was all just a very overwhelming time, but I know that song provided some comfort and emotional release for so many who knew Charlie, including myself."

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