Buskers and Cobbles

(Note: Click on the links in this story for info and some great music samples.)

It's Saturday. This morning the Railyard in Santa Fe was filled with local growers, artists and craftspeople selling the works of their hands, the sweat of their brows, the visions of their souls. There's a guy who grows and sells something like 20 different varieties of garlic. There are surely peppers appearing by now, and the air is  doubtless filled with the sweet smell of roasting chilies. There are also musicians, perhaps the terrific, cross-dressing dobro player is there, a child violinist, the fellow that performs Shakespeare by himself, the gifted classical guitarist Petra Babonkova, who raised her kids and put them through school on her income as a "street musician,"  or the wonderful cellist, Lisa Stuart. Wish I were, too.

Lisa

Petra

I had always intended to put a set together, buy the inexpensive permit, and set up at the Railyard Farmers Market or near the plaza with a battery powered amplifier I bought for that sole purpose. I would have been a piker, an at-most mediocre performer amidst these gifted veterans, but I wanted to have the first hand experience of performing on the street, my upturned hat receiving what coins or bills passers-by drop in. I just wanted to be on their end of things for awhile. I never got around to it, never quite worked up the nerve or put in the work to get my stiff fingers back in guitar shape, and my lyric-dropping mind trained to remember all the verses of the songs I've written or love.

My Santa Fe friend Jim's son Pat visited for a few months one summer with a pal of his. They put together a little act where the pal did magic while Pat played the banjo. They were mediocre, but had some good fun and made a little money.

Then there's a Native American who plays a flute whose name I can't remember, a terrific cowboy singer/songwriter Wiley Jim, an amazing accordion player Pedro Romero.

I also always intended to create a website that featured all of these people, and others, with bios and video from their street performances. I'm putting together a good collection of cobbles for my road to hell. I hope this entry will be a prelude to a project I will someday finish.

The Santa Fe Blues.