Takin’ it to the streets brought sharp, flat experiences

With the monsoons of the midweek blessedly spent, the 4th annual Spokane Street Music Week finished Friday on a dry and high note.

More than 50 musicians took part. We played during the noon hours at sidewalk locations scattered throughout the downtown business core.

And speaking of harmonious milestones, this year’s event reached a new high in donations collected for the Second Harvest food bank.

The take: $2,026.95.

This includes a generous $500 donation from my buddy Dave Cebert, president of Cue11 recording and entertainment, plus a $100 gift from the River Park Square mall.

The total shatters our previous high of $1,361 set in 2004.

But Street Music Week isn’t only about raising funds for a worthy cause. Oh, no. This is also about adding art and fun to the urban landscape.

And meeting Jesus on the sidewalk near Starbucks.

Well, at least this burly dude said he was Jesus, although I’m not buying it for a couple of reasons.

First, the guy seemed pretty angry for a loving Savior.

Second, he showed up Friday and started hollering right in the middle of a song I was playing with guitar virtuoso Joe Brasch, Cebert on accordion and Brian Drew on percussion.

The real Lord would not have been so rude.

But here’s the clincher: The dude got right in Brasch’s face as he was about to launch into a solo. Only an agent of Satan would interrupt a Joe Brasch guitar solo.

As any bartender or bordello madam will tell you, the element of psychotic surprise is one of the great pleasures of entertaining the public.

Speaking of which, I had a couple of memorable encounters.

One guy brought me a piece of chicken in a Styrofoam carton. He said something about wanting to help a starving artist.

Smart aleck.

An older guy gave me a sheet of his song lyrics. He set them to Hank Williams’ classic tune, “Cold, Cold Heart.”

I’m writing me a Western song to set the record straight.

Not all the women of the West cheat and stay out late. …

Rewriting Hank? The sidewalk blasphemy continues.

It’s pretty cool to watch Spokane Street Music Week get bigger and bigger each year.

“It’s the next Woodstock,” said recording artist Jim Boyd, who made his busker debut.

COLUMN INTERRUPTION: A “busker,” according to Webster, is one who entertains by “dancing, singing or reciting” on the street. This is not to be confused with street politicians, panhandlers and people claming to be Jesus. Those would be your everyday buttheads.

Boyd played Thursday and Friday. It was great to have a performer of his caliber join in. Earlier this month, the singer/guitarist was named “Songwriter of the Year” at the Native American Music Awards.

After a few guitar strums and harmonica blows, Boyd said that any apprehension he felt about sidewalk serenading quickly disappeared.

“It was amazing,” he said. “I had such a great time.”

Spokane Street Music Week draws a wide range of musical talent.

Once again the Spokane area bluegrass community really stepped in to make this event happen. And I couldn’t have done it without help from Jim Lyons, whom I’ve promoted to Street Music Week vice el presidente.

I met a lot of great people, like saxophonist Leo Potts, a retired university music professor. Potts said he moved his family to Spokane last July, smack in the middle of the Mayor Jim West sex scandal.

It didn’t scare him away. “I come from Southern California,” he pointed out, “which is pretty crazy anyway.”

And if anybody knows about street music it is William “Banjo Bill” Wylie.

“I’ve played across the country more times than I can count, and I’ve got the credentials to prove it,” he told me one day.

Oh, yeah? What credentials?

Banjo Bill grinned. “Bad knees. And aching joints.”