Anyone who has lived in or traveled through a city has encountered street musicians. Singers, often accompanying themselves on guitar or other instruments, playing the sidewalks, parks and subway stations. Perhaps you’ve tossed a quarter, or a dollar bill, or even $5 into the tip jar or open guitar case. But did you ever wonder who these people are – why they opted to make the streets their stage, and whether any of them had gone on to make it in the music industry? 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.
Drawing on years of interviews and eyewitness accounts, Down On The Corner: Adventures in Busking and Street Music – due out November 12, 2024 from Jawbone Press – explores street singers in a myriad of musical genres, from folk to rock ’n’ roll, blues to bluegrass, doo-wop to indie rock. He also surveys busking hotspots – New Orleans’ French Quarter, Chicago’s Maxwell Street, New York’s Washington Square, San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf and London’s Tube, to name a few.
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.
Baker explains his longtime affinity for street music: “One day around 1970, my father said 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. In that moment, I developed a lifelong affinity for the informality, spontaneity, and audience participation of busking.”
The foreword was written by Dom Flemons, who as a member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops won a Grammy Award for the album Genuine Negro Jig, and who has since been nominated for two of his own albums. He’s also received a Blues Music Award. Flemons has busked in New York City, the Carolinas, Europe, and his native Phoenix, where temperatures frequently soar north of 100. “If you are a good busker,” he writes, “you can bring the crowd, give them a thrill and finally disperse everyone in a timely manner with a few extra dollars in your hat.”
A few words about Down on the Corner: Adventures in Busking and Street Music:
“A brilliant and fascinating look into the world of street music. Take a chance and stand on the corner. You’ll be glad you did!” – Willie Nile, singer and songwriter
“Cary vividly tells the stories of music on the streets across the world. Busking hasn’t been talked about as much, but it’s the beginning for a lot of notable musicians. Cary’s book is a deep dive into the music and stories from the streets.” – Bobby Rush, multi-Grammy Award-winning blues artist
“Cary Baker has captured a most interesting take on street singing and playing in his new book Down on the Corner. From legends Blind Willie Johnson, Huddie Ledbetter, and Willie McTell to the not so famous and the infamous. Black, white, and Hispanic bards of the boulevard; playing and singing for the world to hear.” – Chris Hillman, The Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers and Desert Rose Band
“A lively, illuminating dive into a criminally overlooked pocket of American music history, a crepuscular realm where artists were ‘discovered,’ recorded, and vanished, all in a day’s time. You’ll never look at street performers the same.” – Jim White, musician and raconteur
“Reading Cary Baker’s excellent book on busking brought back memories of when I was in The Blasters and how our band arguments usually ended one of two ways: either with fists and tears or with my brother Phil loudly proclaiming that he was the only guy in the group who could walk outside and make a living by singing on street corners. Cary’s exhaustive research and passionate reporting show not only why my brother was proud to have been a busker, but it also makes a solid case why busking is as much of a part of the history of American roots music as record labels, juke joints, and lost highways.” – Dave Alvin, singer, songwriter, guitarist
“Special thanks to Cary Baker for giving a new voice to a music tradition that will continue to live on forever and will find new homes wherever the music takes it.” – Dom Flemons, Grammy Award-winning and nominated singer, author, educator and musicologist“
Heartfelt and vivid!” – Marshall Crenshaw, singer and songwriter
Cary Baker is a writer based in the Southern California desert. Born on Chicago’s South Side, he began his writing career at age 16 with an on-spec feature about Chicago street singer Blind Arvella Gray for the Chicago Reader. His return to writing follows a 42-year hiatus during which Baker, by 1984 based in Los Angeles, directed publicity for six labels (including Capitol and I.R.S.) and two of his own companies, working with acclaimed artists and labels such as R.E.M., Bonnie Raitt, the Smithereens, James McMurtry, the Mavericks, Bobby Rush, Willie Nile, and Omnivore Recordings. Prior to his PR years, Baker wrote for the Chicago Reader, Creem, Trouser Press, Bomp!, Goldmine, Billboard, Mix, Illinois Entertainer, and Record magazine.
He has also produced and/or written liner notes for historical reissues from Universal, Capitol-EMI, Numero Group and Omnivore. He has been a voting member of the Recording Academy since 1979.
Down on the Corner: Adventures in Busking and Street Music is available for pre-order here.
