Down On The Corner: Adventures In Busking & Street Music

by Cary Baker

Down On The Corner is the story of music performed on the streets, in subways, in parks, in schoolyards, on the back of flatbed trucks, and beyond, from the 1920s to the present day.


One day around 1970, my father announced to me that he’d like to take me to Maxwell Street Market, an open-air flea market adjacent to Downtown Chicago. He wanted to show me where his parents used to take him shopping as a child. When he parked his car in the University Of Illinois lot, the first thing I heard, long before I could see where it was coming from, was the sound of a slide guitar—not just any guitar but a National steel resonator guitar. We followed the music and found ourselves standing on the west side of Halsted Street, midway between Roosevelt and Maxwell, where Blind Arvella Gray was playing the folk/blues song ‘John Henry’—a song that seemed to have no beginning and no end. Sensing that his audience was generally passing by rather than gathering around, Gray kept playing that one song for his entire shift. He’d even altered the lyrics to refer to the local streets. In that moment, I developed a lifelong affinity for the informality, spontaneity, and audience participation of busking.


Drawing on years of interviews and eyewitness accounts, Down On The Corner introduces readers to a wide range of locations and a myriad of musical genres, from folk to rock’n’roll, the blues to bluegrass, doo-wop to indie rock. Some of the performers he features—Lucinda Williams, Billy Bragg, The Violent Femmes—went on to become international stars; others settled into the curbs, sidewalks, and Tube stations as their workplace for the duration of their careers. Anyone who has lived in or travelled through a city will have encountered street musicians of one kind or another. For the first time, veteran journalist and music-industry publicist Cary Baker tells the complete history of these musicians and the music they play, from tin cups and toonies to QR codes and PayPal.

Genres: Music, History

256 pages, Paperback

Published November 12, 2024

Reviews

[Robert Morgan Fisher]

Outstanding guide to the real artists who put there talent out there on the line every day. As Life's Little Instruction puts it: Street musicians are a treasure. Stop for a moment and listen; then leave a small donation.

Amen. Cary's overview here is comprehensive and fascinating.

[Michael]

I took this book out from my local library strictly because of the foreward by Dom Flemons, whose music I love. Each chapter focuses on either a location in a city, or a particular musician. The city/location chapters feature several musicians who've built up some notoriety, some who became famous by jumping to clubs, stages, and festivals; others who remained on the streets and made a living. In the introduction, he says in the United States one of the first buskers was none other than Benjamin Franklin, who recited poetry on a street corner. He later admitted is was bad poetry and decided a different vocation would be needed. But others persisted, such as George Burns, Irving Berlin, Eubie Blake, Louis Armstrong, Blind Lemon Jefferson and others. He first was exposed to busking by his father dragging him to Market Street in Chicago, which as a combination farmers market, second hand dealers and buskers; the later got started in the 1940's post WWII especially and through to the heyday's of the 80's until it was moved to a new location by the University of Illinois - Chicago campus. This caused it to loose a lot of its funky charm. During the heyday, some of those who got well known and sought after by connoisseurs were John Henry Davis, Arvella Gray and Granny Littricebey. He points out that cities that are transportation hubs have some good scenes, albeit some got there through a long political fight, especially when mayors and businesses decide to pass laws banning busking as a form of begging, with Mayor LaGuardia being one of the more famous, who put in place a long standing law of same. There may be some surprises of those amongst those featured in the book and others who were well known as buskers before they reached wider acclaim through recordings and world tours such as Billy Bragg, Elvis Costello and Madeleine Peyroux. A very fun read.

[Gary]

Baker gives us biographies of many buskers. If you are like me and did not know what a busker is, it is someone who performs on the streets, usually a musician, with the hope of being monetarily appreciated.

The buskers being talked about range from Chicago, the East Coast, to New Orleans to California and Europe. Time wise he takes in from the early 1900 to the present. Some of the buskers have made a name commercially, some have not.

While it is good to know the background of these people, the telling of their stories get repetitive. Personally, I found that I started to skim over them I then realized what I was missing was their music. So I looked up many of the people and found selections of them. You can do the same or use my notes which has links to their music. Go to my blog my blog for these notes.

[Fred Dreher]

Very interesting book. The only bummer is that this book seems to need quite a bit of editing still. Nevertheless, I learned a lot about the art of busking and it's importance to a society. Further, it got me in touch with the effort, "Playing for Change," which is an important venture to connect the world through music. Following is a quote that resonates with me from the book.

"…street music is one of the greatest forms. It goes directly from people's hearts -- you can walk by and listen to this music, and it can change your day. And changing your day can change your life." -- Mark Johnson, co-founder of Playing for Change.

[Sarah Knutilla-marx]

This is a fascinating read. There’s a lot of information and some of the stories seemed repetitive to me but I think that that’s simply because many of these artists had similar experiences, struggles, and achievements throughout their busking careers. I liked that the author compiled the artists into different geographical regions. If you love learning more about independent artists, you’re going to want to pick up this read.

[Matthew O'Neil]

A great history of a wholly under appreciated art form, from the records and mouths of the artists, their friends and family. One would be amazed how many contemporary, mainstream artists have a connection to, or benefitted from, street busking and developing their performance. Highly recommended for any musician looking for options outside of the mainstream market.

[Barbara]

This is a great read for any music fan. I am a music fan, and I was familiar with some of the musicians and locales highlighted, but not all. So I’ve been checking out the artists I don’t know.
Thank you for this wonderful, interesting book!

[Bradley Morgan]

My interview with the author for the New Books Network: https://newbooksnetwork.com/down-on-t...