Could not connect to database

Greetings,

I started seeing the error message "Could not connect to database"
when using any cap commands.  Here's some output when I did a
deploy:check after doing a deploy:setup.  Note that everything "seems"
to work OK, except for the errors reported.

$ cap deploy:check
  * executing `deploy:check'
  * executing "test -d /var/www/gcd/releases"
    servers: ["myserver.com"]
Password:
    [root-mXuENlnwU4lWk0Htik3J/w@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] executing command
root-mXuENlnwU4lWk0Htik3J/w@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:
Could not connect to database

    command finished
  * executing "test -w /var/www/gcd"
    servers: ["myserver.com"]
    [root-mXuENlnwU4lWk0Htik3J/w@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] executing command
root-mXuENlnwU4lWk0Htik3J/w@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:
Could not connect to database

    command finished
  * executing "test -w /var/www/gcd/releases"
    servers: ["myserver.com"]
    [root-mXuENlnwU4lWk0Htik3J/w@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] executing command
root-mXuENlnwU4lWk0Htik3J/w@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:
Could not connect to database

    command finished
  * executing "which svn"
    servers: ["myserver.com"]
    [root-mXuENlnwU4lWk0Htik3J/w@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] executing command
root-mXuENlnwU4lWk0Htik3J/w@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:
Could not connect to database

    command finished
You appear to have all necessary dependencies installed
$ cap deploy:cold

When I do deploy:cold, it doesn't work correctly nor run the
migration, nor start/restart mongrel.  I'm guessing the database I
can't connect to is my MySQL database, but the error message isn't
clear.  The credentials for the database are all proper and seem to
work on the server.  So, I'm a bit stumped about what the problem
might be.

Is there any place else I could look for more logging output?  Does
anyone have any suggestions or insights into what the problem might
be?

Any and all ideas appreciated.

TR