Buskers, minstrels, & street musicians?

Subject: Buskers, minstrels, & streetmusicians?
From: ChaosCat
Date: 11 Apr 01 - 09:02 PM

I'm a 20 year veteran of the Seattle street music scene, and I'm curious if there are other buskers amongst the 'catters with whom I could swap info, tall tales, tips and tricks, etc...

Subject: RE: BS: Buskers, minstrels, & streetmusicians?
From: jets
Date: 11 Apr 01 - 09:12 PM

I hit the bricks again last Friday for the first time this year. This will be my forth year. I play the daiatonic button box. What is your pitch chaos?

Subject: RE: BS: Buskers, minstrels, & streetmusicians?
From: ollaimh
Date: 11 Apr 01 - 09:51 PM

hey i've busked seattle.the folklife festivaland the pike street market.i had a good time.i'm a toronto busker now. although i am planning a long summer road trip.

i've busked across canada,parts of western europe(twenty years ago) and the annerican west coast so i can swap stories about those areas.

i play harp,cittern, bouzouki, mandolin, guitar, and a bit of fiddle.mostly i busk with the harp or cittern as the novelty gets a good response.

Subject: RE: BS: Buskers, minstrels, & streetmusicians?
From: ollaimh
Date: 11 Apr 01 - 09:56 PM

by the way i tried tostart a previous thread on busking and now i can't find it. this was only a few days ago.

how doyou search these things.

Subject: RE: BS: Buskers, minstrels, & streetmusicians?
From: ddw
Date: 11 Apr 01 - 10:26 PM

ollaimh,

on the forum page fine the search boxes near the top. in the "Filter" box type "busker" and switch the time to 3 days. That should lead you to your previous thread and a lot of others on the topic.

cheers,

david

Subject: RE: BS: Buskers, minstrels, & streetmusicians?
From: ChaosCat
Date: 11 Apr 01 - 10:41 PM

*chuckle* My Pitch? Errr... C? Kinda depends on the material. As for what I ~do~... guitar, vocals, bodhran, asst. other percussion, a little mandolin, though not recently. After I posted, I found a really old thread on busking, and had some fun reading that, but the most recent post was back in 99, so it's just as well to re-open the subject I suppose.

I've been pretty much full time pro busker here, did the market for about ten years, until the politics got too deep for me, and there were too damned many musicians and too few spots. I was one of the first to play the bus tunnels when they were new, and the acoustics were to die for, but I didn't do very well financially there. Nowdays, I haunt the U-district and Broadway, and do very well, though I'm too old for that 10 hours a day, seven days a week haul. That was alright when I was 20, but nowadays, I think it'd kill me.

Anyone reading this thread Scadian types?

Subject: RE: BS: Buskers, minstrels, & streetmusicians?
From: ollaimh
Date: 17 Apr 01 - 10:12 PM

i tried that and it gave me thread that were usually a year old. not this one.

i used to do sca stuff out west, but the politcs are too opressive here in toronto. in fact i noticed alot of unecessary politics in the west but at least you could avoid them--but you would likely never get awards, but here i can honestly say i've never met nastier people than in the sca in ontario.

i've found that freebee music scenes often get dominated by local wednesday night all stars who can out politic anyone but can't out play a toad. now i've been to some good ones too.

as far a the sca the celtic bardic(which i won a couple of sectiopns in once) was outstanding. there were a lot of nice bardic types at thirty year celebration too but a lot of the other events don't have much for a muscian to do.

in fact i won the redstone bardic event at thirty year celebration--the only open bardicevent at the celebration so i claim to be the sca unofficial bardic champion.

that ought to piss off any ontario scadians on here, but it's true

Subject: RE: BS: Buskers, minstrels, & streetmusicians?
From: Stewart
Date: 17 Apr 01 - 10:58 PM

About six years ago I lived in D.C. area for a year. On weekends I would go out to Alexandria on the warf by the Torpedo Factory (artist lofts). Favorite spot in ped archway (walkthrough) - good acoustics and out of sun. No trouble, little competition. Money was not the objective, but always got enough to treat myself to a nice dinner, or would give it to the Alexandria Seaport Foundation. My first and only experience busking - like to do it again if I found a good place.

S. in Seattle

Subject: RE: BS: Buskers, minstrels, & streetmusicians?
From: ollaimh
Date: 19 Apr 01 - 08:52 PM

well i was out again today-playing the mandolin , and did ok, i am getting rather spoiled with the mandolin as it is so light compared to my harp--and for some reason i'm making almost as much money as i did with the harp--tommorrow i'll take the battleship/harp.friday is often my best day.

as far as goos spots . out west in the usa i found any town with a decent sized university, usually has a corner where the book stores and coffey shops intersect and there is usually money to be had on the street there.

i canada the small towns can be good as they have rarely seen a real street performer. in wierd places like 100 mile house i've had two and three hudred dollar days.

here in ontario i am in the subway mstly. it's a licenced system so if you passs the audition it's civilized and warmer in the winter out of the wind--and it's a lot warmer than montreal and ottawa--where i often go in the summer. the money in the last two isn't so good, but i have a lot of friends in both cities and i enjoy the trip.

a bonus on the west coast is i have often found good and rare instruments in the odd ball small towns. i am playimg a 1817 gibson mandolin i found in saskechewan ten years ago for a fraction of what it would have cost me at a store. spokane is also good for finding instruments and the people are very freindly. i got a loy of invites to peoples homes there over the years--a lot of irish in that town and they love the harp. i fond of the scenery out that way as well. they almost have salt flats in some places and then lovely forests a few hundred miles away. i used to drive my van down there and camp on the early week and busk the weekend. even down to boise occasionally. once i went all the way to denver and boulder--both good busking towns as well.

portland has many good spots as well--including the market on saturday. so where does everybody else play?

Subject: RE: Buskers, minstrels, & streetmusicians?
From: GUEST,obyrnes bar caple st
Date: 09 Aug 10 - 04:20 PM

looking for some info on getting some buskers to to some perfroming out side on saturday night jester type fire eating and any thing else call to the bar or email [e-mail] or text 0862008922

thanks

Subject: RE: Buskers, minstrels, & streetmusicians?
From: GUEST,josep
Date: 09 Aug 10 - 10:33 PM

Detroit-area busker as well as open mics, coffeehouses and bars. But mostly I'm standing on pavement hoping to make a few bucks and a few is about all I ever make.

Subject: RE: Buskers, minstrels, & streetmusicians?
From: GUEST,josep
Date: 09 Aug 10 - 10:40 PM

One tip is to throw a buck in your ax case to get the ball rolling. Seems to work better. Busk where there's clubs and bars. Pink Floyd, Johnny Cash and Neil Young usually opens purse strings. Dylan too--especially "Tangled Up in Blue" so learn that one if you already haven't.

Subject: RE: Buskers, minstrels, & streetmusicians?
From: ollaimh
Date: 18 Dec 10 - 10:25 PM

so where ar all the buskers. i've retired. i married and settled down in my native east.

"what do you cvall a musician without a girlfriend"?

"homeless"

however i have been pining for the old days.i am gald i don't have to go out and play mandolin for fifty bucks in the dead of winter anymore , and i don't miss the tyranical bureaucrats who try and make rules for buskers)see the folklife thread.

i just listed the things i've been given while busking and have thought of a lot of tales, so maybe i'll try an write tales of the street as a series of short stories

Subject: RE: Buskers, minstrels, & streetmusicians?
From: breezy
Date: 19 Dec 10 - 08:00 AM

Ten years pass in the plink of an E

Subject: RE: Buskers, minstrels, & streetmusicians?
From: ollaimh
Date: 19 Dec 10 - 09:57 PM

i didn't even realize this thread was that old!!! wow!!!

it came up as a similar thread on another busker issue ans i wondered where all the buskers had gone.

i remember busking at the pike street market back a decade ago. there was a really funny native guy there. he had busked kamloops so we had something in common. but he had the best busking sign i have ever seen

it said   SAVING FOR A HOOKER

Subject: RE: Buskers, minstrels, & streetmusicians?
From: meself
Date: 20 Dec 10 - 12:22 PM

That's great.

I've mentioned this before, but, the best busker sign I ever saw was: "TONE DEAF/CAN'T SING/NO TALENT/PLEASE HELP".

Subject: RE: Buskers, minstrels, & streetmusicians?
From: The Sandman
Date: 20 Dec 10 - 12:34 PM

Bbrrezy, ten years gone with the wind