Busking in Spokane

On Friday evening, I spent a few hours busking downtown here in Spokane. I've been writing and playing for 30 years, and yet tonight was the first time I have ever actually busked. I decided to do it because I thought it would be a great way to get in a lot of practice and hone my performing skills.

I was a little nervous about the process; I started by doing some online research. Both Busker Central and Buskers Advocates had some good tips. I also wanted to make sure I complied with any relevant laws. Apparently Spokane has gone through some busking battles in the last couple of years. Rick Bocook (known as Harpman Hatter) led the fight, and it seemed to be fairly successful. There's also a lot of Supreme Court precedent supporting busking as protected speech.

Since it was my first time busking, I decided not to set up in a "prime" spot. I picked a slightly quieter street corner and set up my little area. I opened my case, and propped a CD in the lid, then started playing. I ran through everything from Division Street, and quite a lot of my Baaba Seth songs, took a ten minute break, and started through them all again. It was great practice for both my playing and my singing.

As one might expect, if you hang around any relatively urban downtown sidewalk long enough, you'll meet some interesting characters. One young couple stopped and while the woman filmed with her cell phone camera, the man stood beside me and repeated each lyric line - just speaking it, not singing or anything - when I was done with it. I was playing "Poor Man Dies." At first he was just standing beside me while she filmed. Then, I sing "In 1947, freedom came to India," and I hear the guy say the line in a loud speaking voice as soon as I'm done. Weird! But they seemed to be enjoying themselves, and they enjoyed the music. 

Happily, I wasn't hassled at all, either by any authorities, or any of the various nutty folks that seem to be a part of every city on earth. I even ended up selling a CD to a passing couple. I'm definitely going to be making a habit of busking. I like meeting people, playing music for people, and I certainly enjoy random and sometimes strange conversations. And as I said before, it's great practice.

There's a few things I'll do differently next time:

1. Take a water bottle. I had a cup of coffee, which I was able to nurse over the course of the evening, but it would be good to have some water. On the other hand, while busking, taking bathroom breaks is sort of an ordeal if you are by yourself, so I wouldn't want to be too hydrated, either!

2. Find a better spot. I had a fair amount of traffic, but now I feel more confident; next time I'll snag a more central location.

3. Bring my ukulele, and maybe my banjo as well, though that will make getting to my spot more of an ordeal. I have to be able to do it in one trip, since obviously I don't want to leave anything unattended on the sidewalk!

I think one key to busking is flexibility. If I am getting towards the end of a song while there's a lull in the traffic, and I see a group of people approaching, instead of ending the song, I'll just kick it back to the first verse and go through it again. Another thing I realized even before I started was that I would have to adjust my quieter songs. Finger-picking without any amplification just doesn't carry very well on a sidewalk. And a lot of the songs on Division Street are sung in a register where my voice doesn't project quite as well. I found it helped on some songs to lower the key a few steps and then sing it an octave higher than I did on the album.

Overall, I'm quite excited about doing this regularly - maybe four days a week. If Spokane were a larger city, I could see busking every day, but here the downtown is only really hopping on the weekends. I'm tentatively thinking I'll play Thursdays through Sundays.