Down on the Corner: Adventures in Busking & Street Music

Music journalist Baker debuts with a colorful if unfocused history of busking in America. Popularized in the early 20th century by an influx of immigrants who imported their musical traditions, street performing boomed during the Great Depression and peaked again during the folk revival of the 1960s. Among other topics, Baker covers how cities like New Orleans and Chicago became “hotbeds for street-corner blues” in the early 20th century; profiles bands who got their start on the street, including Milwaukee’s folk-punk trio Violent Femmes; and discusses pushback from lawmakers who sought to classify the practice as “begging.” The book shines when it highlights how busking brings people together. For instance, Mark Johnson, the codirector of Playing for Change, a documentary about street musicians, recalls watching “a homeless man next to a businessman, a little girl next to an elderly woman” as they listened to a New York City subway station performance. When “the music played, all the things that made these people different disappeared,” Johnson says. Unfortunately, the book’s disorganized structure means that such broader questions as how society values art are only touched on, and the artist profiles can feel anecdotal and disconnected. It’s a mixed bag. (Nov.)