Sickened by litter left by holiday revelers, Lake Tahoe musician writes song to inspire change
Submitted by Jeff Munson on Sun, 04/21/2024 - 10:27am
Local musician Liz Broscoe has released a song that features Lake Tahoe and the challenges to keep it blue, and it could become the next battle cry to protect the lake.
Liz has been working on a new album for over a year and she wrote "Mother Earth" as one of the songs for that album. She had finished writing the song when she saw the videos of the thousands of pounds of trash left on Zephyr Shoals on the 4th of July.
"It made me sick just like everyone else that saw it," Liz said of the viral video.
Within a day of sitting with that image, Liz had an inspirational thought to make a public service announcement (PSA) and music video out of "Mother Earth."
Like many others in her generation, Liz grew up watching the PSA with the crying Native American canoeing on a trash-laden Hudson River. Released in 1970, it became of one the most well-known television public service spots. "People start pollution, people can stop it," the announcer said in the background.
It has been 54 years since that video aired, but people still need to be told, "Look what you are doing, Stop it!"
Liz wants to make her video and song the battle cry call to action.
"Mother Earth" is the second of Liz's songs about protecting the place we call home. She wrote the lyrics to "Last of Our Kind," and the music was written by Wesley Orsolic. It was about Lake Tahoe, where "Mother Earth" could take on a more global appeal along with a focus on the lake.
After seeing the trash on July 4, Liz started creating storyboards in her head to follow the concept of the song for video. She met with a friend who sponsored the video creation.
She needed footage and a filmmaker and found a two-in-one with Colin West, the founder of Clean Up The Lake. They started a conversation, and the League to Save Lake Tahoe provided some footage to go along with Colin's.
Liz's song was cut in half to fit the video, and they started in August to create the video along with Ludovic Fekete, and it was recorded and produced with local musician Wesley Orsolic. See the video below and here.
"Everyone learns differently — music is emotional, the song is emotional," said Liz. "You can change behaviors if you make things convenient. Some people are emotional and if you can touch them that way with pictures and music."
She'd like to touch people with this song and video, whether it calls them out on their behavior, or gets them to change and not be a part of the problem but be a part of the solution.
"This can be a part of a different approach and tactic to get people to change their behavior," Liz said of the song and video. "This is a no-brainer," she added. "Mother Earth" is one song on Liz's album, "Here We Are Again." She'll be at Earth Day at Lake Tahoe Community College, not with this song but by leading a drum circle. Liz has been teaching drumming at the college for almost 25 years. Her classes include rock ensemble, drum set, and West African hand drumming.
For the future of the song, Liz shared that it would be great to be seen to a larger audience in its mission to create change. Perhaps Lake Tahoe Visitor's Authority promotions, the Reno-Tahoe International Airport, incoming in-flight video, show before concerts at Stateline, or during the previews at theaters. Maybe even at the annual Lake Tahoe Summit. She'd love to see it as the signature piece for Lake Tahoe.
To take it to the next step, a sponsor would be nice as well as some collaboration with creative people.
"It would be nice if it just got out there," explained Liz. "Find someone who understands the vision for sponsorship."
"So many places this could go," said Liz. "It could be a PSA for the world, much more than just Tahoe. Fifteen million people come to Tahoe, wouldn't it be nice if half of them saw it?" More on Liz can be found on her website drumchik.com.
"If you can use your talent for purposeful work, it's a beautiful thing," said the talented musician.
