Love Lies Broken
Another live rock dulcimer song filmed at the Coconut Teaszer in Los Angeles
Full Moon Music Video #11
Since the rock dulcimer song “Are We Gonna Get Naked” was such a hit (for me anyway) on the last full moon video, we’re sharing another one from 1997 excavated from the dusty archives. I’m still sporting the cowboy hat I wore a few months earlier at the PajamaJam show. This video was filmed by Kurt Norton in LA at the rock club The Coconut Teaszer. Jim French performs with me, seen here playing a Frenchophone, one of his instrument inventions.
French became known in the San Diego area in the late 1970s for his virtuoso jazz saxophone and for collaborating with avant-garde artist Diamonda Galas. He also collaborated with the alternative San Diego band Three Mile Pilot in the mid-1990s. Around the time of this show at the Teaszer, I recorded several songs with Jim and the wonderful ‘60s era San Diego rock drummer Willie Kellog, at the studio of LA composer Kraig Grady. (My favorite of these is another dulcimer song Demon Lover, also just released on Bandcamp.) Kraig composed music using microtones (notes between those on the 12-tone scale) on old organs he altered. I sang on one of his compositions too, finding the in-between notes that the birds sing. Perhaps unexpected collaborators for a folk gal like me, but good music is good music. Original musicians of all stripes love to explore new sounds with one another.
That night at the Coconut Teaszer was magical. My loyal friend and college roommate Lisa Groening was present, as she always was when I made it up from San Diego to Bigtime LA. There were maybe twenty other people in the audience. Small, but enthusiastic.
The Coconut Teaszer was a legendary venue in LA that drew people who really wanted to engage with the music. According to their Facebook page,
“It was host to many musicians, singers, artists, groupies, roadies/techs, rockers, punks, metalheads, DJs, sound techs, dancin' fools, moguls, actors, rabble-rousers, rock stars, ex-wives and children of rock stars, mistresses of rock stars, bouncers, random Hollywood fixtures, minstrels, freaks and even a genius or two.”
Mistresses of rock stars…ah, the nineties! Nirvana, Green Day, Rage Against the Machine and many other notable bands had played at the Teaszer. I was stoked to get a gig there.
Partway into my first song, most of the power went out. Mysteriously, the stage lights stayed on even though the sound was gone. The sound guy was nowhere to be seen, disappeared in a poof of pot smoke before I even started. I paused for a moment, meeting alarmed eyes in the audience, all of us wondering what would happen next. It seemed like they expected me to figure that out.
I yanked the cable out of my guitar and stepped into the audience. Maybe the cowboy hat gave me some attitude. I asked people to come in closer. From that point on, the entire show was acoustic, bare-naked music. On the video, you can see the abandoned mike glowing in the stage lights behind us under the EXIT sign. Everything you hear in this video was recorded by the camera alone. The video is dark and grainy, but it really captures the vibe from that night.
Deep gratitude to Kurt Norton, who trekked up from San Diego to shoot the VHS video as well as the still photos I have from that evening! This is from that long-ago pre-digital era; each photo was precious, because developing it was expensive. Kurt filmed and photographed many of my shows, some of which I hope to share with you in the future. Someday I’ll tell you the story of how Kurt heroically managed to film me performing at the Lilith Fair—even when the doors to ticket holders were inexplicably still closed…
“Love Lies Broken” is about a close friend who was in that stage of a relationship where it’s over, but you don’t yet know how to admit it. The beloved who captured your heart still seems present, but in truth the flower is dead.
Thanks as always to my husband and audio engineer extraordinaire Brian Castillo for mastering the sound off the camera.
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Absolutely wonderful, as always!
You really rocked that song, Cowgirl! 🤠 I love the dulcimer and Frenchophone accompaniment, which go very nicely with your voice. Great story, too, about playing on in the midst of a partial power outage. It doesn't seem to have affected your performance. Brava!