Busker - Tales of a Renegade Harpist

'BUSKER - Tales of a Renegade Harpist' is the first full-length modern memoir about the life of a busker and an inside look at the much-maligned yet honorable busking lifestyle. In August of 2007, officials from Washington State Ferries booted the author, Celtic harpist David Michael, off the ferryboats for reasons of Homeland Security. The capsizing of his seventeen-year career performing free on-board concerts aboard the Port Townsend to Whidbey Island run touched off a media storm that prompted him to write this book. Through his personal experiences, historic anecdotes and a look at other famous buskers, Michael makes the case that busking plays a vital cultural role in society. The book encompasses far more than just Michael s struggle with the nation s largest ferryboat bureaucracy. There are outlandish and often hilarious details of his forty-year career entertaining around the globe...from cafés on the isle of Crete to the walking streets of Scandinavia as well as the ferryboats of Puget Sound. Much of the book is a gritty and humorous travelogue of five summers of street music exploits and misadventures in Europe. BUSKER also includes colorful coming-of-age stories of Michael as a teen, venturing through the turbulent sixties culture of anti-war uprisings and psychedelic voyages. He reveals character shaping events and epiphanies as a young man when he honed his music performance skills from an Israeli kibbutz to the seamy underbelly of Hollywood Boulevard. Especially relevant in hard economic times when old models for gaining artistic recognition may no longer be effective, these are gritty and enticing stories of how the author did whatever it took to find an audience for his music often through improper channels. A fascinating view of the travels and adventures of a northwest regional icon and instructive to those few brave souls wanting to try their hand at this ancient art form, BUSKER takes us on a wild ride from the fairs and ferryboats of Puget Sound to the castles and cobblestones of Scandinavia. Sociological observations comparing European and American attitudes about art are interlaced with the adventure tales. In Europe, creative artists are thought of as national treasures in need of encouragement. By stark contrast, making a living as a performing artist in the United States requires considerably more drive and a knack for self-promotion. On either continent, one must hone one s skills. The book celebrates the busking model of engaging the public directly regardless of the degree of state support for the arts. As an aging busker approaching his 60th birthday the author passes on wisdom gleaned from the streets in a bonus section: 50 HOT TIPS FOR BUSKERS with invaluable pointers and lessons for novice and expert buskers alike. He thought it would be fun for armchair buskers too! The book also contains a 73-minute compilation CD of the author s best tunes, drawn from some of the 23 CDs of original music he has published over the past quarter century.