By Lynn Saxberg
The Ottawa Citizen | March 12, 1992
We women have a bad habit of living our lives to please men. We often push aside our own personalities and concentrate on pleasing the husbands, boyfriends, fathers and bosses we know. It sometimes takes some dedicated soul-searching later on in life just to discover who we are.
It’s a state that Lisa Germano is familiar with. The 33 year-old violinist lived the first part of her life as her father’s “little princess” before she got married. After the marriage broke up, she was overshadowed by her bosses, larger-than-life men like John Mellencamp and Billy Joel. Germano is an Indiana native who has worked with Mellencamp for nearly seven years. She played on two of his albums and is on her third tour with him. They played in Ottawa Wednesday.
Germano’s début solo album, On the Way Down From the Moon Palace, is evidence of the positive changes in her life. The title comes from a fairy tale about a girl who retreated to a moon palace when she thought her father didn’t love her.
“It’s a place in your head where you go as a woman and you stay up there and you live through the light of all the men in your life,” she says.
“You want your husband or your boss or your children to define who you are because you don’t know yourself. You gave up on yourself because you wanted to be loved so much by your men.” Germano can identify with the moon palace. She was 30 when she came down from it. Her marriage had broken up and she had finished tours with John Mellencamp and Simple Minds. There were no more men to define her existence.
“All of a sudden, no one was calling me. I had no job. It was like, ‘If you’re not John Cougar’s fiddle player, who are you?’
She realized that if she didn’t come to terms with herself, she’d become an alcoholic. She told herself to quit trying to be a back-up player and figure herself out.
Writing songs helped her through that difficult period. Though she had never actually finished a song before, it was Mellencamp who made her decide to try it.
“One time, years ago, John said, I’m going to make a movie someday, so why don’t you try to write a violin piece.’ I had all these little melodies and ideas and that really did give me a nice sense óf di-rection.”
Germano has two songs on Mellencamp’s new Falling From Grace soundtrack – Bud’s Theme and Little Children.
But more satisfying is her solo album. She wrote all 13 songs (one is co-written with Greg Edward), played most of the instruments (except drums on three tracks and bass on one), produced it herself and spent her savings to get it out.
Considering her state of mind when she wrote it, it’s not surprising that the album shows a wide spectrum of emotions, from the sarcastic self-pity of Dig My Own Grave to the lilting poignancy of The Guessing Game. It might be considered alternative folk-rock.
Germano, who was recently signed to Capitol Records, credits much of her recently found self-confidence to Mellencamp, who she says is “a very cool person.”
“(From him, I learned that if you want anything in your life you have to go get it. That helped me when I was questioning my abilities to do this record. You can’t sit here and feel sorry for yourself and wonder if you’re good enough. You just do it and see how it goes.”
She’s also following Mellencamp’s example of keep ing busy instead of wallowing in self-pity. He likes to paint while on tour; she is working on another album, this time with Canadian producer Malcolm Burn, who’s worked with Blue Rodeo and Daniel Lanois.
The second album, due for release this year, will be full of emotions, too.
“I feel like I’ve always been a person who needs to communicate some sort of feelings and emotions with people. Whether I’m successful at it or not, I think that’s the thing I’m supposed to be doing.”
Featured Image: Lisa Germano find self-confidence.
