guitar – Page 2 – Busk Break

Chris Lyon and Adam Witkowski

Bluegrass-loving buskers Chris Lyon and Adam Witkowski performed a pair of original tunes for this 2011 session of Busk Break. Switching between mandolin and guitar, the duo each played one of their own songs with the practiced ease of friends who have been working with each other for years.

And that’s exactly the case, as they’d been involved in several projects together in Vermont. This performance near Pack Square is the only time either musician appeared on Busk Break. Continue reading Chris Lyon and Adam Witkowski

Busk Break: The Asheville Waits Band covers “Jockey Full of Bourbon”

Vocalist/guitarist Mark Conti and bassist Christian Ferri — both members of the Asheville Waits Band (a Tom Waits cover band) — perform “Singapore” from the album Rain Dogs in front of the Iron sculpture.

This video was originally recorded on a very windy day in early January, 2012.

Continue reading Busk Break: The Asheville Waits Band covers “Jockey Full of Bourbon”

Busk Break: The Asheville Waits Band covers “Singapore”

This video was originally recorded on a very windy day in early January, 2012.

Continue reading Busk Break: The Asheville Waits Band covers “Singapore”

PJ Bond and Lauren Baker

Last week, we featured a song by then-local singer-songwriter PJ Bond from the pre-video days of Busk Break. This week, we’re adding the second tune from that recording in July of 2010, as Bond was joined in front of Kim’s Wigs by his friend Lauren Baker.

Baker is probably best known as the musical saw player from local “absurdist, gypsy, folk, funk, punk” band Sirius.B. (To be fair, like most members of that band, she’s a multi-instrumentalist, but the musical saw thing tends to stick out.) Continue reading PJ Bond and Lauren Baker

PJ Bond performs “You Know The Drill”

On a warm July night in 2010, singer-songwriter PJ Bond stood in front of a wig store and played his heart out. This was in the early days of the Busk Break project, and it set the tone for the rest the performances that summer.

Bond had only been living in town for a year or so, but his brother, Pancho Romero Bond, was already established as the frontman of local “absurdist, gypsy, folk, funk, punk” band Sirius.B. Although not nearly the same level of showman as his brother, I’d argue that PJ Bond is clearly the better songwriter. But PJ never really found his niche in novelty-act living Asheville, and his time as a busker didn’t last long. Continue reading PJ Bond performs “You Know The Drill”

Aaron Basskin performs “What To Do”

Recorded in the same session as his cover of “If I Only Had a Brain”, local busker Aaron Basskin performs his original tune “What To Do” in front of the Iron sculpture on downtown Asheville, NC.

Most of the time, the buskers I meet aren’t aware of the Busk Break project, but as it turns out, Basskin was. He’d seen one of the several videos documenting local jazz band and busking scene favorite Big Nasty, and was highly impressed.

“Those guys are so cool,” he explained with a smile. Although Basskin was mostly playing covers, it wasn’t too hard to talk him into playing an original for his second contribution to the Busk Break series. Continue reading Aaron Basskin performs “What To Do”

Aaron Basskin covers “If I Only Had a Brain”

Local busker Aaron Basskin performs his version of a song almost everyone in the English-speaking world can at least hum along to: “If I Only Had a Brain” by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg, written for the 1939 film version of The Wizard of Oz. Continue reading

Doc may have strained his voice, but not his harmonica

At first listen you might not think much of this ditty by the Walhalla, SC,-based busker known simply as Doc. It’s certainly a well-performed tune, and clearly there’s passion behind this original composition, but something is obviously missing. That something is lyrics, and to appreciate the song in context, it helps to realize that Doc was bone tired from performing, and had completely strained his voice the previous day. He could barely talk, in fact, and was nursing herbal tea between songs in an attempt to soothe his vocal chords. Continue reading

Knoxville’s Bill Page sings about trading places

For quite some time, Bill Page was one of a very small number of busking musicians on the streets of Knoxville, TN. It’s not a town that has traditionally been known as a busking hotspot, but over the last few years this has been changing, and Page is at least part of the reason why. Some of it is his music, to be sure, but just as importantly, it’s because of his defiance of anti-busking policies by the Knoxville police.

Back in the summer of 2010, Page was issued a citation for obstructing a 10-foot sidewalk with his performance. According to Page, the initial interaction with the police was more them telling him to move along, and him refusing to because busking isn’t illegal in Knoxville. The police said it was, and when it turns out they were wrong, Page says they “went fishing” for something to cite him with. Continue reading Knoxville’s Bill Page sings about trading places

Erin Brown performs “Killer Bee”

Asheville’s Bele Chere festival is a swarming, sprawling mass of sights and sounds, and it’s easy for busking musicians to get drowned out in the chaos. But that didn’t stop Durham-based singer-songwriter Erin Brown from giving it her best.

Here, she performs her original tune “Killer Bee” at the corner of College St. and Lexington Ave. to a small crowd of festival goers. Continue reading Erin Brown performs “Killer Bee”