This past Friday night, Dan (we perform together as
The Hot Baloney Boys) and I spent a few hours playing busking on the corners of St. Louis' Central West End district. It's a very hip area of town with a lot of galleries, bars, restaurants, and clubs. The weather Friday was beautiful and there was a lot of foot traffic on the streets. Even so, we made very little money. People seemed to enjoy the music, and we had one woman who spent a considerable amount of time taking photos of us and telling us how great we were. Then she left us a dollar.
Now, I'm not in this for the money. Dan and I get out and busk as often as we can, mostly because it gives us a chance to play together and gets us out into the fresh air. Usually we make enough to buy a couple of beers when we're done, and that's just fine. But for gosh sake, show a
little love, people! What I noticed on Friday was that people who sat at nearby sidewalk cafe tables and were obviously enjoying the music; tapping their feet, talking and nodding or pointing to us, waving at us would then get up from their table and walk past us even averting their eyes in an attempt to pretend that we were no longer there, not even throwing a single into the fiddle case at our feet.
We had one guy stop and talk for a while to let us know that he thought it was great that we were playing on the street, that it really adds something to the life of the neighborhood. Said he couldn't figure out why there wasn't more of this going on in an area with such great night life. Shook my hand and then walked away without tipping at all.
Don't these folks make the connection that maybe there aren't more musicians on their streets because they don't tip the ones that are already there??? Come on, people! Give a little more and you'll get a lot. It's a basic rule of
things. Art and music aren't free, no matter how much you'd like for them to be. Musicians are not all
hippy-dippy artists with no need for cash. They're working folks just like you with families to support and mortgages and rent to cover every month. They spend hours and hours learning new tunes and practicing to constantly get better on their
instruments. But, if the local residents and folks spending time in the arts and cafe districts don't make it worthwhile for local musicians to get out and busk and contribute their talent to making St. Louis a vital, hip, living city, they're not going to do it. You're at least half of the equation.
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