Love That Album Episode 186 - Interview with Cary Baker about the book "Down On The Corner: Adventures In Busking And Street Music"
Love That AlbumShow Notes
It's been said that the mark of a great city is how it promotes the arts. Thinking specifically about busking or street performing, some cities actively encourage musicians to perform in parks, streets, and other outdoor surrounds. THAT is a town devoted to the arts.
Welcome to episode 186 of Love that Album.
Cary Baker is a native of Chicago who has had a great career in music publicity and has worked with some of the most well known bands in the US during his stint at IRS and Capitol records. However, his passion has always been with those musicians who performed on street corners or at markets. He's written a great new book called Down On The Corner: Adventures in Busking and Street Music.
He tells a bit about his own origins with buskers and how that led to much of the work that followed. Many famous artists started out as buskers before gaining popularity in the more conventional spheres of the music loving world. The vast majority of busking musicians, however, continue to perform for years on city streets, with that being the means to an end. Cary's book is American-centric with a little bit of a look “across the pond” as Americans call it, but it's still a fascinating look at the stories behind musicians you know and many you don't.
Cary joins me to tell some of the stories from the book as well as his own origins at Maxwell Street Market in Chicago.. We had a great conversation. This could have gone for a couple of hours, but time didn't allow for it, but I really love what's there, and hope you do too.
This is the documentary that we discuss in the show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQJyYJuoVn8
Check out Cary's website at https://www.carybaker.com/
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