Down on the Corner - by Cary Baker (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Down On The Corner is the story of music performed on the streets, in subways, in parks, in schoolyards, on the back of flatbed trucks, and beyond, from the 1920s to the present day.

One day around 1970, my father announced to me that he'd like to take me to Maxwell Street Market, an open-air flea market adjacent to Downtown Chicago. He wanted to show me where his parents used to take him shopping as a child. When he parked his car in the University Of Illinois lot, the first thing I heard, long before I could see where it was coming from, was the sound of a slide guitar--not just any guitar but a National steel resonator guitar. We followed the music and found ourselves standing on the west side of Halsted Street, midway between Roosevelt and Maxwell, where Blind Arvella Gray was playing the folk/blues song 'John Henry'--a song that seemed to have no beginning and no end. Sensing that his audience was generally passing by rather than gathering around, Gray kept playing that one song for his entire shift. He'd even altered the lyrics to refer to the local streets. In that moment, I developed a lifelong affinity for the informality, spontaneity, and audience participation of busking.

Drawing on years of interviews and eyewitness accounts, Down On The Corner introduces readers to a wide range of locations and a myriad of musical genres, from folk to rock'n'roll, the blues to bluegrass, doo-wop to indie rock. Some of the performers he features--Lucinda Williams, Billy Bragg, The Violent Femmes--went on to become international stars; others settled into the curbs, sidewalks, and Tube stations as their workplace for the duration of their careers. Anyone who has lived in or travelled through a city will have encountered street musicians of one kind or another. For the first time, veteran journalist and music-industry publicist Cary Baker tells the complete history of these musicians and the music they play, from tin cups and toonies to QR codes and PayPal.

'This book allows us to hear the full story of feeding the street, as it has been done for over a century in the United States. It gives us a glimpse into the lives of the buskers who have enriched our daily existence with music and performance art. It's a dollar in the hat, with the acknowledgment that the world is always a better place when busking is a part of the picture. Special thanks to Cary Baker for giving a new voice to a music tradition that will continue to live on forever and will find new homes wherever the music takes it.' Dom Flemons, from his foreword to this book

Review Quotes

"Down on the Corner sings out the stories of these various buskers robustly, illustrating Cary Baker's passion and appreciation for the art that happens out on the streets and fills the air with song and, if the musicians have a good evening, the performers' pockets with a little dough-re-mi." No Depression

"Baker provides a smart history of street music ... For all of the book's nostalgic pull, which is considerable, it is also of this moment. After reading it, you will never be able to walk past a street performer without tossing a little something into his or her hat, cup, guitar case or other eager receptacle." Chicago Tribune

"Baker takes us through the history of busking from from 1920 to 2022, beginning with the blues and gospel singers who worked the streets of Dallas, New Orleans, New York and Memphis, including Blind Lemon Jefferson, Reverend Gary Davis and hillbilly artists. A wonderful read about a neglected and important part of music history." Morning Star (UK)

"Cary Baker's first book is a celebration of buskers ... interesting stories are told and many thoughts shared on how singing for dimes can help shape a musical career." RNR (UK)

"The book shines when it highlights how busking brings people together." Publishers Weekly

"Leave it to Cary Baker to write the Bible of the sonic adventure. In a hypnotic way, this intriguing book makes the endeavor of hitting the street and going for it on the same level of excitement as taking off for the moon. Baker clearly has the boogie woogie of street music and busking in his veins, and the way he has collected and written this fascinating tome seems like an art form in itself. It's serious business. Wisely divided into chapters by geography, Baker is able to make an exciting sense to what sometimes seems a jumble of geography, and thank goodness for his extremely sharp planning." Bentley's Bandstand, Americana Highways

"In the digital age, the ancient art of street singing or busking might seem like an anomaly. But in his new book Down On The Corner: Adventures In Busking & Street Music (Jawbone Press) author Cary Baker makes the case for its continuing vitality-while taking readers through a historical journey and series of delightful vignettes with artists that have braved the elements and navigated city ordinances and public spaces as they have taken their music to the streets." Americana Highways

"Baker writes with a deft balance of reportorial precision, storytelling expertise, a way with evocative phrases that sometimes rivals the great bluesmen, and-perhaps most critically-the dedication of a lifelong music enthusiast. Itself a celebration of busking, Down on the Corner is to be celebrated both for its content and for heralding Cary Baker's welcome return to the world of musical authorship." Living Blues

"This is a fun book. Informative, fly-on-the wall ... and full of rather lovely vignette 'stories'. It's also a good introduction to many well-loved and less known blues artists, street musos and eccentrics ... I immersed myself in the tales, the stories included in the book, and it has led me into researching about a number of the artists, the buskers and street performers included. And you can't say much better than that!" International Times (UK)

"I'm a lifelong crate digger who's read countless books, articles, and liner notes about music that interests me. Yet I learned much from Baker's book. Sometimes the knowledge I gleaned from Down on the Corner was about acts I'd never heard of, and other times I got schooled with a deeper understanding of the histories of bands and solo artists whose music and stories I already knew. But my biggest takeaway from the book? It made me want to prowl the outdoor public spaces of my current hometown of Durham, North Carolina, in search of some good street music." It's Psychedelic Baby

"Cary shares anecdotes and origin stories from Old Crow Medicine Show, Poi Dog Pondering and the late rowdy raconteur Mojo Nixon. He also checks in with heavy-hitters like Lucinda Williams, Elvis Costello, Madeleine Peyroux and Glen Hansard. He navigates a course from coast to coast, as well as the UK and Europe. It's a thoroughly engaging read." Coachella Valley Weekly

"Tired of ghost-written music memoirs and fawning bios? Had enough of deep-dive discographies? Bored with overpriced coffee-table tomes? Looking for something new and interesting to read? I have just the thing: Cary Baker's inspired new non-fiction number Down On The Corner: Adventures In Busking And Street Music." Tinnitist

"Baker offers a compelling glimpse into the lives of musicians who have turned the streets into their stage." Strange Brew (UK)

"Busking, as Cary Baker notes, has been common in cities 'as far back as ancient Rome.' He highlights a wide variety of musicians like Wild Man Fischer, Mary Lou Lord or Ramblin' Jack Elliott, and key locations such as Chicago's blues nexus, Maxwell Street." Mojo

"While we get a feel for the history of busking, the book also addresses some of the modern concerns and challenges for street musicians. What Cary Baker and the musicians he interviewed really get across is the great joy of performing, and the need we as a society have for the music." Michael Doherty's Music Log