Street Music Week’s expansion to Perry Street off to a slow start in first year

It’s been a slow week on South Perry, where Street Music Week, Spokane’s annual noontime busking celebration to support the 2nd Harvest Food Bank, expanded for the first time this year.

As the lunch hour proceeded and pedestrians strolled down the warm, slightly sleepy street Wednesday, members of the local acoustic rock band Rock Creek – the Rock Creek Tributary for the day, singer and guitarist Phil Mewhinney joked, as two of their members weren’t able to make it that day – played folksy covers and originals with a banjo, guitar and spoons just outside of Perry Street Brewing. While street corners can get packed downtown, where Street Music Week originated, very few have taken the opportunity to play on Perry Street in its first year – as of Wednesday, only six had signed up.

While Perry Street lacks the downtown office spaces that had once been a reliable driver of lunchtime foot traffic, there was still a fairly steady stream of people coming and going for the hour or so Rock Creek had been set up, said singer and guitarist Phil Mewhinney.

Despite being a local band that’s played together for years, Mewhinney, banjoist Shaun Moran and spoon player – typically drummer – Glen Hodgson acknowledged that they hadn’t been aware of the weeklong celebration of busking prior to seeing a recent notification. But they thought the experience had been worthwhile enough, they added, that Rock Creek would be making another appearance during the week.