BYU’s sports message of the year, "Rise Up" has been all over the campus, at the bookstore, on t-shirts and will be shouted from the stadium at all home football games this fall. But what isn’t yet known is how four local musicians now scattered across the country have united as BYU football fans to contribute the new rock and roll song to celebrate this year's "Rise Up" theme. This song, aptly titled "Rise Up" wasn’t recorded in an impressive recording studio, but through file-sharing on the internet. The musicians have never been in the same room together and have never laid eyes on one another while writing and recording the song. Prior to last year, it had been 25 years since they worked together. The musicians first reunited in 2010 at the Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp and performed live in San Francisco with one of their teenage influences, Mark Farner of Grand Funk Railroad. In San Francisco, Farner and the musicians wrote and performed 2 original songs and also covered Grand Funk's top 40 charting hits from the early 70s "Rock and Roll Soul" to a packed audience. The musicians promised to stay connected this time and write the original music highlighting favorite memories from their lives. Discussing the reaction received on their song version of "Rise Up," Kevin Wright, bass guitarist from Texas, said he was proud of the song and happy it has been received well. “We wanted to do something for the team and the University. I hope it is used in whatever way fires-up the fan base and adds even more excitement to the games," he added. Other musicians include guitarist/songwriter Ken Van Wagenen, now residing in Los Angeles, musician Doug Lyman, Marc Allen, keyboard player in Nashville, David Thomas, Utah vocalist, and Todd Mitchell, drummer, producer, and sound engineer. To view the "BYU Football Cougars Rise Up" on youtube, click this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp2bkPB5ZF4 
