The Intrepid Fiddler

Busking in the Digital Age

- Gus Garelick

I don't know where the term "busking" comes from. Apparently it's been around for centuries. Maybe it refers to wandering troubadours of the Middle Ages. But basically it means playing for tips in open spaces. I had been a busker in San Francisco over 50 years ago, when I was just starting out as a fiddler. I graduated to "real" gigs and began climbing the ladder to becoming a professional musician (still climbing). I never thought I'd be a busker ever again.

Then along came the pandemic. During the big lockdown, music totally shut down. There were no longer any clubs, fairs, music festivals, weddings, concerts. There was nowhere to play. Even jamming was restricted; no one wanted to risk catching the virus in a closed space. We've all been there.

At first, I thought I could use the time to woodshed. I had no work of any kind (even the day job was shut down). So, no excuses: here was a time to learn all those new tunes I was meaning to learn, come up with some new licks, fill in a lot of holes in my playing technique. But that got old after a while. Playing in my isolated apartment was too frustrating, so on a whim I thought about my old busking days. Why not give it a shot? I had nothing to lose. I could do my practicing on the street and get paid for it.

I grabbed my fiddle, a chair, and an old vase, and set up in front of a local supermarket. The vase was my tip jar, and it filled up almost immediately. Folks were starved for live music; they couldn't put the dollars in there fast enough. Some folks were in tears as they told me how happy they were that I was there. I felt like a kind of hero.