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Some news worth sharing... while I was playing on the street at Seattle's Pike Place Market yesterday, I was approached by the acting Market Master who was helping a production crew to organize some video footage for a 30 second commercial. The project will help to raise awareness of a new ballot measure that voters are going to be asked to address concerning the need to find funding to fix some areas of the historic marketplace. The idea was to feature Market musicans and their music in the video project.

They captured me playing my musical saw version of, "Over The Rainbow" and interpreting one of my favorite old blues, "51 Highway Blues", with my bottleneck slide and my homemade resophonic "Nobro" guitar. Afterward, while their camera was still set up next to me but pointed in other directions, as they were finished with my contributions but still capturing some miscellaneous images, I continued busking. The challenge of offering my creative efforts next to a crew of folks with thousands of dollars worth of camera gear can be daunting, but I had an ace up my sleeve.

I've been very pleased and excited about the reactions I've been getting while offering my latest song, "Wall Street Bail Out Blues." So, I began playing it. The power of the lyrics caught the ear of a guy who had stopped to talk to the video crew. Before long he was so captivated by the song that he stood in front of me hootin' to every verse, reaffirming the message as I sang. When I finished, one of the guys working with the video crew told me how much enjoyed the lyrics and asked permission to video that song as well. He said that he'd post it to YouTube for me.

So, it looks as though I'll have my newest song, "Wall Street Bail Out Blues" LIVE from the Pike Place Market, available for all to see shortly via YouTube. While I'm certain that this version, being less than a week old, probably won't be as polished as it'll be once I've had a chance to work with it a while longer, I'm nevertheless very glad that it'll be out there for everyone to hear. What a great plus to have come my way via this commercial shoot!

A star is born...Congrats!

thats so great Reggie-congrats!

boy thats the kind of dumb luck thing we all dream about........you are very talented of course but just goes to show-you never know what it is you do-or where you do it-that will really get some action for you......congrats again and i hope your lucky wind blows far and wide!

Tom

Lady luck may smile on you. Congratulations.

Here's the YouTube link to my newest song, "Wall Street Bail Out Blues".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCdWEHqZJuw

If it sounds a little primitive, that's because I had just written this one a couple of days before it was filmed. That's less than four days from creation to film. Whew! A week and a half later I'm still tweaking the verses and honing the guitar part.

Enjoy!

Hey Bob,

Thanks for the note and congrats. I don't know if I'll ever be mistaken for a "star", but given that we're all made of star dust...you may be on to something there.

Hey Tom,

Thanks for droppin' by and offering me your congrats. I can't chalk it up to anything but dumb luck. I was pretty tired by the time that film crew sauntered up next to me to film me playing. I think that I normally would have been on my way home to rest up for another day. I wasn't in my best voice but still, it was a thrill to get filmed. Even if the finished product was fairly primitive, at least it's out there for everyone to hear. Four days from creation to film. Whew! That's fast!

Finally, I managed to get into some kind of synchronous state where everything just clicked in my direction for a brief moment. That was a nice feeling.

Reg

Everett,

Thanks for your kind congratulations! I'm looking forward to picking up a copy of one of the dvds from the commercial and they're going to send me a copy of the dvd of my new song too.

Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy!

Nice clip - i like how the photographer got the flowers and guitar neck alot in the film - nice work! best wishes jm

Congrats, Reggie! Enjoyed the video. Good to see ya posting!

Hey Joice Marie,

Thanks for checkin' this out. I think that I finally have the words to this one memorized and that makes presenting this one a lot easier. Having a camera set up that close to me as I was trying to crank out this new song made me stumble through the lyrics and fumble the guitar part a little. It takes me a while to polish things up. Playing on the street is a great means to that end.

Reg

Hi Tricia,

It's nice of you to drop by and give this one a once over. I've settled on some lyric changes that are altered from my original concept and are even different from the video. Of course, with a song like this, I've got an audience that's sharply divided into two camps, those that will listen and those that won't be interested, due to my shot at Bush.

That old saying, you can't please everybody, is just a natural fact of life.

The commercial that these guys put together also features me and my music. I saw a copy of it posted on YouTube today. My mug is the first image you see in the 33 second spot and my bottleneck blues music, an instrumental section of my interpretation of an old blues, "51 Highway Blues", can be heard playing softly in the background throughout. I've very happy for the way that turned out. Here's a link to that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKAiAVHej6A

Here's another wonderful thing that happened just the other day. While I am again playing on the street at Seattle's Pike Place Market, a regular casual venue where I enjoy offering my musical pursuits, and while playing my latest song, "Wall Street Bail Out Blues", I notice that someone pauses nearby. At first, I'm not sure whether they're simply waiting for someone who might be inside the Starbucks that I'm playing in front of or listening to my song.

Before I'm finished singing my song, the person who had paused in front of me moves to stand just to my left. Because this is still a new song, my attention is largely focused on my guitar's fingerboard and a printout of the words that I've placed on the pavement in front of me as a prompt. While I do notice most folks as they pause nearby, when I'm engrossed in many of my musical presentations, I rarely get a good look at who's there until I'm finished with my songs.

When I do look up, I'm greeted by a woman who asks if I wrote the song. I reply with a, "Yep". She then offers a wonderful quote, "Your song stopped me dead in my tracks". I lightheartedly ask if I can quote her comment. She then mentioned that she was involved with promotions and that she would like to help me to get my song featured on NPR and elsewhere. She said that she didn't want any fee in exchange for helping me with this but would like me to acknowledge her assistance. I'm more than willing to do that. We exchanged info and I hope to hear from her soon regarding this offer.

It's exciting to see this relatively new pursuit of mine, songwriting, making such an impact.

Luck is what you have left over after you give 100 percent. ~Langston Coleman

How long have you been busking in Seattle Reggie? (and don't say "since the rain stopped"!)

Lafe,

Sorry that I lost track of these posts. Life gets busy.

I've been street performing in Seattle since about 1978. That's about when I arrived in the Northwest. There were street performers playing at the Pike Place Market when I first happened into the area.

I recall having seen a street scene kind of like this happening back in Chicago when I lived there. There's an interesting scene in the movie The Blues Brothers that captures some of the feel of the Maxwell Street Market. The movie scene shows John Lee Hooker singing and playing on the street with a small combo.