Doug Clark: With a crescendo and finale, Spokane Street Music Week draws to a close

The 15th annual Street Music Week reached its finale at 1 p.m. Friday amid intermittent rain and steady generosity.

Which amounted to another record haul for Second Harvest food bank. The most recent count puts our street music take at $30,249.77, the first time over $30K and a significant bump ahead of last year’s tally of $25,000 and change.

This year’s figure includes online and street donations, as well as contributions from sponsors, and yet another incredibly generous $15,000 check from area businessman and philanthropist John Huckabay.

It’s easy to get caught up in numbers, of course.

What impresses me even more is the human element: That some 250 individual musicians and entertainers were willing to raise money for the food bank by performing during the noon hours all week in downtown Spokane, the historic Garland District and Coeur d’Alene.

The Eyer Family Band, for example.

Father Carey and two of the cutest little girls ever, Neilia and Ivy. They’re not only regulars, entertaining people with tricky songs like “Constantinople,” but they also star in hilarious online videos that Dad creates each year to promote this event.

Sue Luppert and six other members of the “Raging Grannies,” showed up Friday. The leftist political activists promised to behave themselves.

That said, some of the Grannies’ parody song lyrics definitely have an, um, edge.

(Sing to the tune of “Home on the Range.”)

“Oh, give me a home,

“Where they don’t tap my phone.

“Where the Bill of Rights still holds sway.

“Cause the people aren’t free,

“If there’s no privacy.

“And our rights need protection today.”

You go, Grannies!

Part of the fun of Street Music Week is hearing the names of the many groups that show up, as in …

King Trouble and the Cherry Pickers. The Blue Skies Sax Quartet. Planted by Hands. Flight Risk. Ukestra. Spokane Horn Club. The Spooners …

Back in the early days, I could thank each and every participant. Then the event grew to where there are simply too many buskers to name.

My friend Curt Donner, however, deserves a special shout out. His band, The Donner Party, was once again a fixture all week in downtown Spokane.

Donner started coming down years ago with Terry “T-Boy” Finnerty, a mutual friend. A talented pianist, Finnerty died from cancer in 2011.

Donner, however, kept coming to Street Music Week, partly in honor of Finnerty’s memory.

Then last month, cancer took Lori, Donner’s wife of 29 years. Donner told me that in the days afterward, he thought he was pretty much done with playing music for a time.

The more he thought about it, however, the more he decided that strumming his guitar and helping fight hunger was still a great way to honor his loved ones.

“My buddies (bandmates Brian Jones, Bob Lawrence, Griff Stokes and John Conne) once again came down this year to play all week not only for the cause,” explained Donner, “but to support me and honor Lori and T-Boy.”

Donner is a retired Spokane teacher and a really good guy. The other day I gave him a hug and my deepest appreciation.

If we ever form a Street Music Week Hall of Fame, he’ll be in it.

Rock on, Curt.

As always, there are some indispensable folks who tirelessly contribute to making this event such an annual success.

Jim Lyons, my Street Music Week consigliere and right-hand man, truly outdid himself this year.

He helped with the planning, wrote a story about the event for the Coeur d’Alene Press, rounded up some sponsorships and almost single-handedly organized last Thursday’s special evening at the Garland Theater to celebrate the 15th anniversary.

Friday marked the 70th day that Lyons has joined me on the street to sign in the volunteers and hand out the red buckets.

Friday was my 75th day, but that’s because I strummed my way around Spokane’s business core all by myself during that first Street Music Week in 2003.

This year, my pal and fellow bandmate, Joe Brasch, played his guitar with me all week and also joined Lyons and me in a crack-of-dawn interview with KXLY television last Tuesday.

There’s nothing weirder than strumming your guitar on a cold and empty downtown sidewalk.

Suggestion to TV news industry: Just because you can broadcast live doesn’t mean you should.

Thanks once again to Julie Shepard-Hall who did a superb job of managing Street Music Week in the Garland District.

Ditto to Jenny Wayman, who led a team of volunteers in Coeur d’Alene.

Behind the scenes, my colleagues at The Spokesman-Review provided their usual invaluable support.

Graphic artist Nita Alexander created the artwork for another superb poster. Mary Beth Donelan reprised her role as the official SMW money manager. (If only she’d do my taxes.)

The S-R marketing department always pitches in to help get the word out. Likewise, thanks to fellow columnist Dave Oliveria for beating the drum.

This year’s sponsors deserve a thumbs-up: Kootenai Health, Community Health Association of Spokane, Empire Cycle, xCraft and Snacktivist Foods.

And a special thank you to Matt Monroe, creator and supplier of those cool keepsake busker badges that we give away each year to every participant.

I didn’t realize how many years Monroe has been doing this until this guitarist walked by me on Friday.

I had to gawk. The guy had pinned what looked like a dozen different badges to his hat.

With all that metal I was surprised he could still stand up straight. If this event keeps going, we’ll probably have to start another fundraiser to cover his chiropractor bills.