K&W in Laguna - 30Aug2011

For our second attempt at street busking in Laguna Beach, we decided to forego the corner where we got busted last week, and just start up the street. I was purely acoustic, but Warren braved the use of his little amp, with, this time, the more valid excuse of just amping up to match the volume (such as it is) of his acoustic partner.

We played at the big green bench/art thing on the corner, directly towards the sidewalk passers by, and elicited a few smiles, slow-downs, and stops-to-listen. One lady with a toddler in a stroller stopped to have him hear us, as they do, but was talking to the baby in a strange language, which turned out to be Hebrew. My challenge, therefore, was figuring out what American song she might know. I usually go to The Beatles for that, but for some reason, settled on John Denver's "Country Roads" instead, which she seemed to be mouthing the words along to, so I apparently guessed right.

Then a guy came by, listened for a while, and asked if we knew any Russian songs. I'm not sure I've ever even heard any Russian songs, much less learned any. Cosmopolitan, I'm apparently not. He was up from San Diego for the art festival, but originally from the Ukraine. For some reason, he was *sure* we'd know the song, in Spanish, from the Antonio Banderas movie "Desperado" (no, not the Eagles song of the same name), but we struck out there, too. Where *have* we been?

He left to find his friends, and brought them back with him, and started asking about the "Desperado" song again (apparently, with some research, "Cancion del Mariachi", which Antonio performs himself in the movie), disbelieving that we'd never heard it (though I guess I'd actually heard it once, having seen the movie), and making guitar-playing gestures while singing snippets from it. So I handed him my guitar and said, "Show us", and he did, while Warren played along. Then he launched into a Russian song, which his wife sang along with. The perks of street music -- no rules, no audience, no equipment, everybody's "in it".

Warren went to check on The Alley, and while he was gone a couple came up and the lady took one of my business cards, saying, "You have a beautiful voice". I said, "Thank you", but was thinking, "How can you *tell*, out here?"

They left, but came back later on to ask about where else I play and stuff like that, and then she asked "Do you play any Christmas music?" My favorite question of the month!

We did manage to get down to The Alley later on, but most of the action was down on the corner where a 6 or 7 piece string band was blasting it out. They were very loud, and very good. But it was getting late and we decided to pack it in after not too long. As we were packing up, the lady from the shop next to The Alley came out and told us that our music had made her evening enjoyable. That was nice, 'cuz I imagine she hears *lots* of different musicians there. We made $20 to split, and had fun. I reckon we'll do it again, pretty soon.