Traveling Folk Musicians without Wheels

Subject: Traveling Folk Musicians Go 'Green'
From: sed
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 10:36 AM

Are there some good role models in folk music land, sea and sky, of conscientious touring musicians who absolutely refuse to use petro-guzzling motorized vehicles to get from gig to gig?

I'd like to do a radio show on these people's music and talk about alternatives to driving many tens of thousands of miles each year as one folksinger recently bragged about doing.

Are there any folksingers tooling down the backroads from venue to venue in solar cars or even in homemade hybrids?

What about horsemen/women, bicyclists, public-trans-only folkies? Or maybe even a Peace Pilgrim singer actually walking to gigs?

That kind of person needs both congratulations, publicity and friendly support, don't you agree? Haven't we traded enough blood for gas to last the rest of our lives? Can't we support some real alternatives to business as usual?

Steve Sedberry
WUWG 90.7 FM
Carrollton, GA
USA
http://us.geocities.com/sedberrysteve/radio.html

Subject: Traveling Folk Musicians Go 'Green'
From: sed
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 10:39 AM

I had changed the heading to 'Traveling Folk Musicians Go 'Green'' but somehow the older phrase 'Traveling Folk Musicians without Wheels' was retained???

'Without' is a negative word while 'go green' is positive.

Subject: RE: Traveling Folk Musicians without Wheels
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 10:55 AM

Boy, good luck sed. Your aims are wonderful, but if someone is travelling thousands of miles a year, I simply don't know how they can avoid driving (and make enough money to survive) My wife Heather books a fine artist who doesn't drive, and it's CONSTANT hassles.....always trying to find someone to drive them to the out of town gigs (and get there on time.....AND someone to drive them back)

In this day and age, many of the gigs are of the "showcase" kind, as well.....meaning no pay. Makes it even more difficult. A young 'hitchiker' kind of folkie might be able to make a go of it, but someone older....I don't know.

It isn't like we still have a viable rail system servicing smaller cities and towns anymore.

T'will be interesting to see if any good ideas come up.

Rick

Subject: RE: Traveling Folk Musicians without Wheels
From: wysiwyg
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 11:01 AM

The older thread title is more accurate to let people know what you are asking about. Titles that are not pretty concrete are a problem.

~Susan

Subject: RE: Traveling Folk Musicians without Wheels
From: nutty
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 11:14 AM

Vin Garbutt is extremely well travelled both in the UK and abroad. He does not drive and uses public transport a great deal of the time.

Subject: RE: Traveling Folk Musicians without Wheels
From: GUEST,Les B.
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 11:44 AM

Well, the model in Country & Western music (arguably a form of folk)is to establish a center like Branson, Missouri with multiple concert venues and have everyone come see you.

I'm reminded of this because there is currently in my state a plan floating around to infuse millions of bucks into cash-strapped Butte, Montana that follows this same idea; build gambling casinos and at least 40 "music halls" to attract tourists. The halls are apparently to be staffed with acts from the "60's & 70's". Is this a boondoggle or what?!?

Subject: RE: Traveling Folk Musicians without Wheels
From: sharyn
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 11:48 AM

Well, I am a travelling folkie without wheels, but I don't gig much. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, do not know how to drive and have never had a car. So I do everything I do, go everywhere I go, on buses, BART, trains, planes and shuttles, making use of rides from friends when they are offered. I used to walk more than I do -- it's a two and a half mile walk to my house from the point where the bus system cuts off at night and I used to make it regularly twice a week, sometimes carrying a guitar with a backpack attachment and/or a fiddle.

It's not ideal, and I have considered trying -- again -- to learn to drive. (I have C.P.) But if I were blind I'd be in the same boat -- what does Frankie Armstrong do? She used to travel a lot. Or Doc Watson?

I do manage to get myself to several music camps a year, to music parties, to the occasional Open Mic, to concerts. I have led workshops in Vancouver and I go to Taos for writing workshops and retreats quite regularly via Southwest Airlines and the Twin Hearts Shuttle. It works for me after a fashion and I am currently forty-five years old.

Subject: RE: Traveling Folk Musicians without Wheels
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 11:59 AM

Well Doc travelled with Ralph Rinzler at first, then with Merle, then Jack Lawrence.

Why don't you contact Vin Garbutt and ask. He shouldn't be hard to find. No question, if you're a real 'go-getter' like Sharyn, you'll FIND a way.

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: Traveling Folk Musicians without Wheels
From: GUEST,Billy
Date: 11 Mar 03 - 03:13 AM

Sed, Jeez, it is hard enough getting from one suburb of a large US city to another suburb without a vehicle. Public transport is minimal and if you can find their routes and a timetable before you come, good luck! I dunno how you can be a travelling musician if you can't travel. Take a cab, an airline/Amtrack, then another cab, rent a room and you've wiped out most of the money you were gonna get from the gig.
Volunteer Folk societies are as friendly a gig as you will find, but they still expect artists to be able to find their own way to a gig. If you don't have your own PA system, the only gigs you can get are small or ones that have their own PA.
I have driven across the USA - it is huge! Forget horses, bicycling or walking! (By the time you get to the gig you are going to be really tired. Can you give your best performance when you are exhausted?) Driving is the only way you can economically do it to get you, your instruments and a PA System to a gig.
As for the Folk "Branston" idea, instead of one artist driving a couple of hundred miles to a gig where the audience has travelled less than ten miles, we'd have several thousand people driving thousands of miles to see a performer. The economics of this screw the audience. (Is this what "Country" music is about?)

Subject: RE: Traveling Folk Musicians without Wheels
From: JennyO
Date: 11 Mar 03 - 05:26 AM

Sed, "Clean Supper", who has only posted here a couple of times, is an Australian songwriter who fits your description. He is currently travelling around the UK, I believe, and slowly working his way back here while trying not to use the petrol guzzling monsters. He has written a lot of songs about the environment for our choir, the Solidarity Choir and our sister choir, Ecopella, a green choir. Maybe you could try sending him a PM.

Jenny

Subject: RE: Traveling Folk Musicians without Wheels
From: Deni-C
Date: 11 Mar 03 - 05:46 AM

I have heard more than one musician complain that it's easier to get gigs aborad than in the UK. That is the reason they have to travel, to make a living. I bet they don't enjoy it. I bet it's exhausting and lonely but if they want to play music they have to do it.
:-}

Deni
Mad Rush

Subject: RE: Traveling Folk Musicians without Wheels
From: Pied Piper
Date: 11 Mar 03 - 08:47 AM

Hi folks.
I am self-employed as a Musician in Manchester UK, and I don't drive.
Most of my work involves playing Highland Pipes at Funerals, Weddings, Parties etc. I travel by public transport and cover most of the North and Midlands. It means getting up pretty early some times as most of my work is during the day and I might have to get to a Funeral 100 miles away for 10:00am.
I don't see it as a disadvantage (except occasionally when I could have done two or even three bookings on one day) the reward is comfortable relatively hassle free travel and an opportunity to see the seasons change from trains that very soon leave Manchester and enter some great countryside.
I once worked out how much a car would cost to run and maintain not to mention learning to drive and buying one, and what I spend now on travel would be about the same.
So all in all I'll stick with public transport until I get so rich I can afford a personal Helicopter.

All the best PP

Subject: RE: Traveling Folk Musicians without Wheels
From: Willie-O
Date: 11 Mar 03 - 09:55 AM

Pied Piper I guess is a good example of how you can make that idea work. Play a specialty instrument -- one that is SO LOUD that amplification equipment is not a concern -- and work in a well-defined area so you know what to charge for a show so you'll be working for more than bus fare.

And don't play "showcases" and all that vanity press stuff, or do so very sparingly.

From what I've seen of bus fares recently, you couldn't really work as a travelling musician in Canada and make any money without yer own vehicle. As a local musician, you can and many do.

Reminds me of a story...I'm pretty sure this is true although I don't remember the source.

Seems a violinist was hired to play at a wedding in a remote village in Northern Scandinavia. He got there the day before the ceremony, in typical hardy Norwegian fashion, by skiing.

At a party the night before the big day, disaster occurred. He broke a string--and didn't have a spare, (big mistake) and there were none to be found locally.

No problem. Jan straps on his skiis and heads for the nearest music store. Gets his new strings (and a spare I hope) and headed back to the gig location. Skiied all night, and got back just in time to play the Wedding March, having made a round trip of 110 miles in 16 hours or so!

Now that's true grit. Wonder what time he woke the music store guy up? (Halloo! Halloo! Emergency!)

Willie-O
half a mile on the x-country sticks and my knees are done.

Subject: RE: Traveling Folk Musicians without Wheels
From: breezy
Date: 11 Mar 03 - 09:59 AM

is the answer Bag-pipes?
Martin Carthy gets about by public trainsport and so does Cyril Tawney at 72.
Anyone coming to perform this Friday 14th March at the Comfort Hotel St Albans on our charity night in aid of M.S. doors open 7.40?

Subject: RE: Traveling Folk Musicians without Wheels
From: breezy
Date: 11 Mar 03 - 10:00 AM

And George Norris

Subject: RE: Traveling Folk Musicians without Wheels
From: breezy
Date: 11 Mar 03 - 10:02 AM

And Dan Mackinnon did when he comes here, great voice and good guy.Hows the winter going?

Subject: RE: Traveling Folk Musicians without Wheels
From: greg stephens
Date: 11 Mar 03 - 10:27 AM

In the Good Old Days( or the 60's, as they are otherwise known) folkies didnt have transport. They arrived in town by train carrying a guitar, played the folk club, stayed at someone's house, where they drank all the booze, ate all the food, shagged their host, and left in the morning(or preferably the afternoon if the next gig was near enough). Cars didn come into it.

Subject: RE: Traveling Folk Musicians without Wheels
From: Mark Ross
Date: 11 Mar 03 - 12:01 PM

As I've said elsewhere(and will again), I've been doing this for 35 years, and I just got my first learners permit. I've avoided having a car for all that time because I can't afford one. I've seen too many of my friends spend all of what is supposed to be disposable income on keeping the damn things on the road. I've traveled to gigs by public transportation systems, walked, rode the freights(was even in a derailment!), and hitchhiked, but my lady friend insisted here that I get a license. Those know who know me shake their heads and ask, "What can she ber thinking?", the idea of me behind the wheel of what is essentially a deadly weapon leaves them trembling. I would prefer not to drive, but at 53 I guess it's about time. And the thought that someone would give me a license makes one wonder at the thought that the STATE will actually give me permission to be on the road! I should mention that I've known how to drive for years, I just considered it my contribution to the public welfare not to.

See you on the highway.

Mark Ross

Subject: RE: Traveling Folk Musicians without Wheels
From: GUEST,Les B.
Date: 11 Mar 03 - 01:42 PM

Guest - Billy: The "Branston" model is of course part of a diabolic plan to increase gas & oil consumption, lining the pockets of fat cats! :)

On a more realistic note, I know one little gray-haired lady here who has taken several chartered bus trips to Branston, with other senior citizens, and always comes back agog with tales of what she's seen and heard.

Subject: RE: Traveling Folk Musicians without Wheels
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 11 Mar 03 - 06:44 PM

Thought of a great Ontario musician who doesn't drive....Jaimie Snider. It's definitely been a drawback for him, but he's been makin' his living at it for thirty years.

Rick

Subject: RE: Traveling Folk Musicians without Wheels
From: KateG
Date: 12 Mar 03 - 12:52 PM

Presumably the feasability of going wheeless depends on where you live. In my experience, the rural public transportation system is much better in the UK than in the US (or at least it was 20 or so years ago when I lived there), but in the US, if you travel outside of the cities you have to provide your own wheels or depend on someone else to provide them.

I spent the first half of my adult life as an urbanite and managed quite well without a car. But since moving to the country, wheels have become a necessity since it is 8 miles to the nearest town with shopping or any form of public transportation.

However, I must confess that as a somewhat green anarchist, I get a certain satisfaction chugging past overturned SUV's on icy days knowing that my little old AWD Subaru wagon uses half the gas and handles twice as well (due to its low center of gravity) than the behemoths.

KateG

Subject: RE: Traveling Folk Musicians without Wheels
From: Marion
Date: 12 Mar 03 - 04:28 PM

Sed, here's an older thread that may be of interest: Do you need a car to be a pro musician?

I've been making my living as a musician for a few months without a car, taking public transport all over my big city and its suburbs. The fact that I'm working as an entertainer rather than a concert artist (for now, anyway) means that there's a decent amount of work in one city and I feel no need to tour. I suspect that touring without a car wouldn't be feasible.

The main problem with taking transit is that it limits what you can bring. With a guitar on my back, fiddle in one hand, and gear bag in the other, I can't travel with a PA system, and getting on and off buses at rush hour is very stressful. I've also found that it's important to carry enough cash to take a taxi if there's a delay and I need to bail out.

Another alternative would be the occasional use of taxis, rentals, and car coops; although you're still burning the gas for that trip, you're using less gas than you probably would if you had a car of your own, and it may be cheaper, depending. Here's Toronto's car coop: Autoshare. It's only for Toronto, but other cities have similar organizations.

Marion

Subject: RE: Traveling Folk Musicians without Wheels
From: sed
Date: 12 Mar 03 - 06:49 PM

Thank you!