Burlap and Blues, The Blues Blog

Busking, or playing for tips, is a new thing for me. I gave it a shot this weekend at a local breakfast place called Brother Junipers with mostly good results.
I got in around 8:45 in the morning, got set up and started playing. Traffic was pretty slow at first – it was a Sunday morning after all – so no tips for awhile. But as traffic picked up I started to get a few bucks here and there. I stopped to eat breakfast, which by the way if you are ever in the Memphis area you HAVE to eat at Brother Junipers at least once – absolutely delicious breakfasts; then went back to playing for about an hour. All in all I ended up with about 17 bucks, which I suppose isn’t too bad for about 2 full hours of playing.
It was an interesting experience and I learned some things. One, I shouldn’t expect too much – after all I’m really there to provide ambiance, not to put on a full concert. Two, location is important. I was kind of back in a corner at the end of a short hallway - good for acoustics - but people actually had to go back to my corner if they wanted to listen – or give tips. Three, I think I’m better playing with a band than by myself. While I love playing that fingerstyle Andy McKee type stuff what I really thrive on is playing with other people and the interaction you get as you trade licks back and forth and explore grooves and riffs. Also I’m more of an introverted person so it would be nice to have someone to work the crowd. Four, I learned to just relax and have some fun with it – after all people aren’t paying really close attention, not like they would at a concert.
Overall it was fun. My wife was there taking video and clapping for me so it felt like I had an audience. Next time I may try a different location – maybe outside. Also I’m gonna try to rope some friends into helping me out so we can jam on a few tunes.