Busking Seattle – Ballard Farmers Market
In olden days, each day of busking would get its own page. In the sleek “I’m too busy!” 2020’s, why bother. Yes it will make the annotations, etc. more convoluted. Too bad.
My routine for Ballard Farmers Market (Sundays) is to walk down, sketch, shop, and then take the bus back up 24th Ave. A separate page will detail the vendors.
Inner City Medicine Show – 21 November 2021: Is it just me, or just Seattle? It seems the multi-person groups (and a good number of the soloists as well) busking in town have a “greatest hits of the 1930’s” sensibility. Works for me! ICMS fills the bill with skill.
Stetson Curtis
Curtis Parton
KB MuscleMouth
Corky Dragland – 21 November 2021: Dragland is an import from some unspecified British isle, and one of the oldest buskers that I’ve sketched. There is some frailty to the guy, so we hope he sticks around a bit longer. On the day of the sketch, the weather was damp and blustery, so, mindful of his health, he cut his set (and my sketch) short to pack up.
Corky Dragland
Emery Carl (undated): Nothing like a harmonica holder to gum up the face portion of a portrait.
Emery Carl
Tony Mack – 13 February 2022: Mack is one of the self-contained performers shlepping around a mini-PA to play the background tracks for his sax solos. One of his tunes was “The Work Song”, a sax staple of my days in Total Crudd. It came to me by way of Butterfield, but Mack correctly identified the antecedent, Cannonball Adderly (“Them Dirty Blues” album of 1960), composed by his brother, cornetist Nat Adderly. For the memories and schooling I threw Mack $5 . Me tipping a busker? You heard it first here!
Tony Mack
Saxxadelic – 13 February 2022: First of a series of artists whose real names we will never know. He was not able to insert The Work Song into his free-form flow.
Saxxadelic
Banjo Dugg – 13 February 2022:
Banjo Dugg
Eric DeAngelo – 13 March 2022: DeAngelo travels with his backing tracks playing on his shlepped mini-PA. He knew few details about his Les Paul axe (year?).
Eric DeAngelo
Reedwarrior “James” – 20 March 2022: James is also deep into the 1930’s. In addition to sax, he also does growly vocals vo-de-oh-doh style through the shortest of megaphones, constructed (or, destructed) from a modified paper coffee cup. Set included “Comes Love (Nothing Can Be Done)” from 1939; I rest my case.
