If there was ever a video that so rightfully placed the aura, meaning, and soul of a composition into video form, it has to be that of Deb Morrison’s solicitous and majestic new tune “Salton Sea.” Morrison’s vibrant Americana rustic-tinged vocals carry the tune with a valiant cinematographic flair reminiscent of Lydia Loveless and Lilly Hiatt.
“I’ve always been fascinated by the surreal, cinematic pull of the Salton Sea and had to shoot there,” reveals Morrison. “It was a three-hour drive to get to what looks like an ocean in the middle of the desert. The visuals were stunning, and eerily apocalyptic in a beautiful way. It’s a real-life Twilight Zone.
If one hasn’t ever been to the Salton Sea south of the Coachella Valley, its something straight out of a David Lynch film where a once thriving world of recreation, vacation, and affluence had been turned upside down into a gritty wasteland where obvious beauty has been replaced by derelict beauty in the eye of the beholder.
Deb Morrison’s solo debut, The North Fork, came out last week and is a melting-pot of American roots music, stocked with songs that blur the boundaries between alt-country, Americana, and roadhouse rock & roll. It’s a genre-bending mix rooted in contemporary moves and classic influences, whipped into shape by a longtime traveler who’s used to crossing borders.
Glide is premiering the video for “Salton Sea” off of The North Folk (below), where we get a small getaway to what was once one of California’s premiere destinations.
“We had beer for lunch at the once infamous, (now very empty) Ski Inn. I still have the ripped guest check the bartender ‘Scheherazade Jones’ gave me with her phone number on it. The only other person in the bar was a weathered-looking gentleman seated on a corner barstool. He reluctantly let me snap a few portraits of him. I can still picture his face perfectly. We didn’t see many people there, but the few we did had faces like his. Faces you can’t forget. We left wanting more time to peer into the mystery of the whole place, but something was telling us to move along before dark.”
Discussing the song’s meaning, Morrison shares, “The song is about having a broken heart. The Salton Sea visually looks like a broken heart to me. You can actually feel it when you’re there. The former magical, vibrant lake resort in the middle of the desert is now a ghost town sprinkled with haunting remnants of what used to be. What appears to be inviting sandy white beaches are actually shorelines made up of crushed fish bones. It has all the physical elements of shattered hopes dreams.
“Salton Sea” stars Morrison’s daughter, Cameron Littell, and was co-directed by Morrison and cinematographer Nic Capelle of Rockton Road studios who also produced The North Fork
