After a reposting by the Grateful Dead’s Instagram and Facebook accounts, California Lutheran University’s Kingsmen Quartet has gone viral online for their performance of The Grateful Dead’s “Brokedown Palace”.
“I kind of lost my mind. I can tell you that with certainty,” senior quartet member Koby Yousem said.
Cal Lutheran Choral Director Wyant Morton said that he doesn’t think that anyone could have anticipated the video going viral.
“It’s not just people seeing it on the Grateful Dead site, but then other people connected to Cal Lutheran are sharing it with all of their people, and it just spreads further, ” Morton said.
The 2024-2025 Kingsmen Quartet group features seniors Koby Yousem, Lucas Sprague, and Nathaniel Mark, as well as sophomore Benito Ruiz. Yousem arranged the piece for the Cal Lutheran Kingsmen Quartet, who performed the piece at the Homecoming Choir & Alumni Concert on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024.
Sprague said that he was “flabbergasted that [the video] was picked up by the official account, but also immensely proud.”
Yousem said that he remembers being in the kitchen with his mom about to bake challah when he first saw that the video was reposted.
“I take my phone out, look at Instagram, and then I see Grateful Dead. I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s cool. I’m not gonna scroll by that, I’m gonna see what that is’. And then I see the actual image, and then I see the background of the chapel, I’m like, ‘that looks really familiar’. And then I turn the sound on and I’m like, ‘that’s me,’” Yousem said.
Morton, Sprague, and Yousem all said that they didn’t expect the reaction to the video that it received.
“I started to see the numbers, I realized, wow, there’s really a lot of people who are seeing the name Cal Lutheran University Kingsmen Quartet. So it was definitely some good publicity for us,” Morton said.
Yousem said he “lost his mind again” when Grateful Dead drummer, Mickey Hart, watched the video of the Kingsmen’s performance.
The video has been shared across multiple platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
“I think it’s like catching lightning in a bottle, if you try to do it, it’s never gonna happen. But every once in a while you, you know you do something just for its own purposes and, and it takes off, and so that makes it really special,” Morton said.
The Grateful Dead Facebook Account posted the video with the caption “Few things evoke the holiday spirit like a choral performance. Here’s a glimpse of the California Lutheran University Kingsmen Quartet’s stunning rendition of “Brokedown Palace,” performed last month at their Homecoming Choral Concert.”
The Facebook post alone currently has 163 thousand views.
Yousem said that he always wanted to perform an arrangement of a Grateful Dead song, so he began arranging “Brokedown Palace” over the summer.
“I thought it was just kind of a nice choice because I’m a senior, a lot of my friends are seniors, and Dr. Morton’s retiring, so I also thought it was a good choice,” Yousem said.
Sprague said that even though he is not as big of a Grateful Dead fan as Yousem, the lyrics are fitting for concluding his time at Cal Lutheran.
“I do feel that singing and the lyrics, all of that song sort of started to close that chapter on being here for four years,” Sprague said.
Yousem said that Dead & Company, the band composed of former Grateful Dead members along with John Mayer, Oteli Burbridge, and others, frequently play “Brokedown Palace” as the final song of their setlist.
“I feel like that song represents a lot of closure,” Yousem said.
Yousem said that the viral performance was the first arrangement he has ever completed and is currently working on more arrangements that he hopes to bring to the stage alongside Kingsmen Quartet members.
