By Terry Craig
The Star Phoenix (Saskatoon) | March 5, 1992
Multi-instrumentalist Lisa Germano was at a crux in her career.
Germano, who earlier this week accompanied John Mellencamp on stage at Saskatchewan Place, release a disc of her own tunes, On the Way Down from the Moon Palace, earlier this year.
Her violin has graced three Mellencamp discs, beginning with Scarecrow and continuing with Lonesome Jubilee and Big Daddy. She has toured with Mellencamp and been an in-demand player.
Last year while on a European tour with Simple Minds, the 33-year-old decided it was time to record her own material.
“When I was out with Simple Minds, they weren’t using me as much as I thought they should and I was feeling worthless. It was frustrating,” she recalled during an interview. “I was writing poetry and lyrics. I’m 33 and, if all I do is play backup, then I won’t last that long.”
As the conclusion of the Simple Minds tour, Germano set up a small recording studio in her Indianapolis home and started to transform the scraps of lyrics and poems into songs.
“It was an experiment I was doing for myself,” she said. Germano pressed 1,000 copies of the disc, intending to hand them out to friends and associates.
However, it generated unexpected major label interest, so much so that, just before the Mellencamp tour began, Germano was signed to a contract with Capitol Records.
A violinist since age seven, her appearance with the Mellencamp troupe was the result of being in the right place at the right time. She was a regular at an Indianapolis club dubbed The Little Nashville Opry where Mellencamp drummer Kenny Aronoff would frequently appear.
“I knew Kenny from this country band I was playing in and he asked me to come down for a session because John was doing a song and wanted a fiddle,” Germano said. “It was like a dream just being asked to play.”
During a break in the Mellencamp tour, Germano headed to New Orleans to work with Toronto-born producer Malcolm Burn, whose credits include Chris Whitley, Bob Dylan, and The Neville Brothers.
Germano is pretty forthright about both her solo career and her role with Mellencamp. “My record is pretty introspective and personal. After a year of that, I’m sick of me. Now that I’m on the road with John, it’s wonderful. I’m hungry to do my own things, but I enjoy working the tour as well,” she declared. “I think I’ve got the best of both worlds.”
