‘Down on the Corner’ Book Tells the Story of Busking & Street Music

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Down on the Corner: Adventures in Busking and Street Music is the title of a new book by longtime music industry insider and journalist Cary Baker that tells 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. The book arrives November 12, 2024, from Jawbone Press and is available in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here.

The first book by Baker, Down on the Corner traces the development of blues, doo-wop, folk and even jazz and classical music on the streets. It features interviews with Lucinda Williams, Billy Bragg, Violent Femmes, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Mary Lou Lord, Peter Case, Poi Dog Pondering, Madeleine Peyroux, Old Crow Medicine Show, Mojo Nixon, Satan & Adam, and more, plus eyewitnesses of busking through two centuries.

Violent Femmes in Milwaukee (Photo by Karen Keene, courtesy Victor DeLorenzo; used with permission)

Related: Mojo Nixon died in 2024

Baker explores street singers in myriad 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. Baker tells the complete history of these musicians and the music they play, from tin cups and toonies to QR codes and PayPal.

Blind Arvella Gray on Chicago’s Maxwell Street, 1971 (Photo by Cary Baker; used with permission)

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.”

Poi Dog Pondering (Photo by Jean François Berneron, courtesy Frank Orrall)

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.”

Watch Blind Arvella Gray performing on Chicago’s Maxwell Street

Born on Chicago’s South Side, author Baker began his writing career at sixteen 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 time he directed publicity for various record labels and two of his own companies, working with acclaimed artists such as R.E.M., Bonnie Raitt, The Smithereens, James McMurtry, and more. He has also written liner notes for historical reissues and has been a voting member of the Recording Academy since 1979. He’s written several feature stories for Best Classic Bands, including ones on Edgar Winter and The Bangles.