Street music a city tradition
John Coyle was strumming his six-string and singing his tonsils out next to the downtown Spokane Starbucks store when a music lover paused to make a donation.
Coyle watched as the man, who was obviously deeply moved by his performance, dug into a pants pocket and scrounged the interior for a suitable reward.
Finally, the hand emerged.
With one penny.
Which he tossed into Coyle’s open guitar case.
Plink!
We asphalt artists refer to such a moment as “the agony of de-street.”
Coyle, however, prefers to look at the bright side. The main thing is that the fellow gave something. And maybe it was his very last penny.
And maybe I’m Justin Timberlake.
Coyle was one of seven kind-hearted musicians who joined me Monday for day one of Spokane Street Music Week.
After a brief reconnoiter, we agreed to split up and take our acts on the road.
Coyle, as mentioned, went to Starbucks. Dave McRae and his pal Ernie Vollmer staked out the corner outside City Hall.
Jim Lyons, wearing a flamboyant Bob Marley jersey and psychedelic pants, made a fashion statement outside Anderson & Emami Men’s Clothiers. Tamara McCorquodale found a spot near O’Doherty’s Irish Grille.
One hour later, the guitarists returned to the sidewalk outside Tulley’s Coffee.
That was the spot where I entertained the local flotsam and jetsam with my original songs. Charlie Schmidt provided the beat on a snare drum and cow bell while his daughter, Sydney, interpreted the deeper meanings of my tunes with dance and baton-twirling.
When the counting was done, we had collected (May I have a drum roll, please?) $185.21 for the Spokane Food Bank.
No doubt about it. We are well on our way to doubling the $503.71 I raised last year when Spokane Street Music Week was but a mere solo act.
“It’s a great thing to do,” said McRae.
“Nobody said to us, ‘You shouldn’t be here,’ ” added Vollmer. “How can you be against the food bank? It’s a pretty healthy thing.”
As McCorquodale discovered, being a street musician is not all about filling your guitar case with money. As she started playing, she said a group of homeless people stood around listening appreciatively to her blues and Jimmy Buffet songs.
At the risk of jinxing the whole thing, I’m beginning to harbor the optimistic feeling that an annual week of musicians playing on the street for charity can’t miss.
And the good news continues.
At Monday night’s City Council meeting, Council President Dennis Hession made the whole thing official by reading the proclamation I submitted to the mayor’s office the other day:
“Whereas, Spokane is a city with an abundance of fine musicians and a rich tradition of music appreciation; and
“Whereas exposing those who visit the downtown business core to more live music will help create an atmosphere beneficial to the city as a whole; and
“Whereas, street music is a noble enterprise practiced by skilled artisans in sophisticated cities throughout the world; and
“Whereas, watching accomplished musicians perform is an educational and cultural experience demonstrating the virtues of creativity and hard work: and
“Whereas, Spokane is a city with a history of embracing new events such as Expo ‘74, Bloomsday and Hoopfest;
“Now, therefore, I Mayor James E. West, on behalf of the citizens of Spokane do hereby proclaim June 14-18 as Street Music Week.”
This was actually the second nice thing City Hall did for me. The first came last week, when I applied for a license.
Some wanted me to pay an outrageous sum for the same kind special permit the Lilac Parade has to have. But if I did that, I’d have to have portable toilets and seedy looking fat guys selling overpriced helium balloons.
Fortunately, Deputy Mayor Jack Lynch helped me cut through all the bureaucratic horse doots. The bad news is I had to spend $35 for a peddler’s license. The good news is that it covers everyone who takes part in our little jamboree.
More musicians will join me today and for the remainder of the week.
I’m hoping one of them is Craig “Buck Daddie” Heberling. He wrote to say that he has a small truck with an upright piano on the bed. He will play if I can come up with a safe location where Buck Daddie can pound those crazy eighty-eights without fear of getting strip searched by one of the parking meter enforcers.
And get ready to party, trombone/tuba lovers.
Wally Friel, a trombonist from the Palouse, plans to be here Friday with Ed Robison, his 83-year-old tuba-playing amigo.
“We call ourselves ‘Two Old Brass Guys,’ ” wrote Friel in an e-mail. “We appear regularly on the street in Pullman and Moscow at various town and college functions, and are in demand on the nursing home and assisted care facility circuit.”
Please. When these rock stars cut loose – no moshing.
So come down to this simmering pot of urban gumbo we call downtown Spokane. Join the fun. And unlike leaky Bloomsday, Street Music Week is actually gaining participants!