Award-winning and Platinum-selling singer and songwriter Brandon Heath is using his ninth studio record, The Ache, to reach his deaf fans.
Heath was inspired to create American Sign Language performance videos after an encounter with a deaf fan several years ago. That fan, Ian Myers, sent him sign language interpretations of his songs.
With help from Araya Williams, a hearing interpreter and longtime friend of Heath, he was able to bring his seventh studio album, Faith, Hope, Love, Repeat, to a deaf audience.
“What I’ve learned from Araya and others is that Deaf culture values the arts and creative expression by Deaf artists,” shares Heath. “This is really a collaborative effort with Deaf performers, using their first language, to make my music available to all people, Deaf and hearing.”
Now, in partnership with Sonshine Interpreting, Heath's album, The Ache has also been interpreted using ASL performance videos.
The videos were performed by various deaf artists, including Williams, Renca Dunn, Colin Analco and Brandon Gaskin.
"The beauty and value of making any content accessible to the Deaf community cannot be understated,” said Williams, founder and visionary at Sonshine Interpreting. “We were honoured to collaborate on the creation of Brandon Heath’s latest album in American Sign Language."
"Deaf people are one of the top three largest unreached people, mainly because of the communication barrier,” added Williams, noting that there is only one complete ASL Bible. “Sign language is not universal, so there needs to be translation done in every other country’s sign language."
Heath's latest album, The Ache, captures the feelings of loss and longing, expressing the deep ache people experience while also guiding them toward the things that matter most like family, faith, community, and the belief in life after death.
Heath is one of the first recording artists to release ASL videos for an entire album.
You can find them all here.