While driving from Venice to Orlando, Florida Sally Ponzio heard in her heart an unmistakable voice. It was the voice of her son Travis, who had tragically overdosed six months ago, after a long battle with addiction. She pulled over, reached for the napkin on the seat next to her, and started writing. Travis’s words of comfort and solace flowed as fast as she could write them. 

“I can’t explain it,” says Sally, “but it was Travis’s voice, speaking in poetic verse. He was finally explaining to me how he had felt during his sickness, how he felt lost before he passed. He was telling me that he was okay now, that he was free…and that I needed to set myself free as well from the burden of worry.”

Fly high, fly free
Spread your wings
Remember me

The words on those napkins would become the lyrics to “Remember Me” a collaboration between Sally, her jazz-pianist/composer brother Frank Ponzio, and singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Eleanor Dubinsky. Released on March 12, 2021, “Remember Me” with accompanying video, is at once a tribute to Travis and a dedicated offering to all who have lost loved ones too soon to the epidemic of addiction. 

“Remember Me” puts a human face on addiction and offers a loving path forward – through music – for those grappling with the stigma and grief that so often accompanies this ubiquitous disease. Says the trio, “We offer the song as comfort and companionship to those affected by this tragedy. May Remember Me help you find healing and a ray of hope.”

Immediately after her seminal car ride, Sally stashed the napkins away in the pages of a small journal she kept in a drawer. Over the next few days, Travis’s voice persisted, “Give it to Frankie. Give it to Frankie.” And so, apprehensive but resolute, Sally sent Travis’s message to his uncle and her brother Frank Ponzio.

Says Sally: “I wasn’t sure if Frank would think I was crazy after I told him about my visitation, but Travis was clear that I needed to pass his message along to Frank because he was the one who could turn his words into a song.”

Surprised by Sally’s experience and moved by her request,  Frank, in turn, invited his long-time friend and collaborator, singer/songwriter Eleanor Dubinsky into the process. The two songwriters have been writing together for years, having most recently teamed up on the 2018 release of Dubinsky’s acclaimed LP Soft Spot of My Heart. He knew that Eleanor had the character, sensitivity, and musical capacity to complete the trio that would shape Travis’s words into a fitting musical legacy.

Via conference calls, writing sessions, and musical drafts, Sally, Frank, and Eleanor were able to capture the spirit and message of that car ride and translate it into a “Remember Me” over the course of the next year. 

“It was very important to us to ask ‘how do you do justice to somebody’s story?” reflects Dubinsky. “If Sally was giving us this incredible story with so much open-hearted vulnerability, our real goal had to be to do it justice. So we didn’t do too much inventing and never strayed very far from those napkins.” 

The trio intentionally invited musicians to record “Remember Me” who they knew could honor the weight of the song and bring its message to life with their expertise. Once in the studio, they were surprised to discover that several band and choir members had been personally affected by the addiction epidemic. The collective connection to the mission of the song deepened everyone’s commitment to the process and further underscored the potential impact and resonance of “Remember Me”.

“By the time we got done,” said Frank, “perhaps with the helping hand of Travis, we somehow ended up with all the right people, all the right situations, all the right studios, and all the right talents contributing to the project. All the elements fell perfectly into place; the song had been writing itself, as the napkins can attest …and now it seemed to be recording itself too.

In loving memory of Travis Stewart. 

“Remember Me” debuted live at Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater in NYC on December 11, 2019. The trio released a slideshow video with the officially recorded track showcasing the musicians, Sally, and Travis on September 18, 2020, on what would have been Travis’s thirty-first birthday.

Sally, Frank, and Eleanor envision “Remember Me” as an anthem of hope and compassion that could be employed by like-minded organizations, foundations, policymakers, families, support groups, mental health practitioners, medical professionals, and patients to support their work combating addiction and eradicating this ongoing epidemic.

“It makes you realize,” says Dubinsky, “the more people you talk to, the more you find you know who have been through addiction or have family members who have been through addiction. It’s everywhere, and it resonates so strongly. This song really reminds you that people are going through things that you would never imagine. That’s what music can do. It taps us into that humanity.”

Eleanor Dubinsky - lead vocals Frank Ponzio - keys Vocalists (left to right): Maggie Collier Melissa Simonson Nadia Rochelle Leah Lakins

Special thank you to Pastor Greg Stamper and Contemporary Gospel Group Soul21, of Celebration Spiritual Center: https://www.celebrationsc.org (c) 2019 ASCAP/BMI

From Sally:

"My son Travis loved and understood the strength of music. He used it often to communicate his feelings. Travis was addicted to drugs including opioids and overdosed at the age of 26. A few months after his death, I had the most astonishing car ride. I was driving alone for a few hours and started hearing Travis' voice. I was so overwhelmed with emotion that I had to pull over to start writing the words that Travis was telling me on a napkin. He persistently urged me to send the words to his older brother, along with his, uncle, my musician/artist brother, Frank J. Ponzio III. I turned Travis's message into a poem and sent it, along with my own writings, to Frank.
Frank invited his collaborator, singer/songwriter Eleanor Dubinsky, into the process and together we turned this story into this song: Remember Me. Much of the lyrics come directly from my conversation with Travis on that fateful day.
Travis, Frank, Eleanor, my older son and I (Sally) want this song to be sung loudly, for it to increase awareness of our ongoing opioid epidemic, and for it to offer comfort and companionship to others who, like us, have lost a loved one to this tragic disease. We want to remind our nation that millions of lives have been forever impacted by this national crisis. We want to make a difference for the better.”

Press for “Remember Me”