The How-To’s of Family Busking …and Advice to Advanced Beginners

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Amber Waves is a talented Colorado family band that I started coaching last summer. I met them when one of the teenage twin daughters, Katie Costello, attended my banjo camp on scholarship from the Colorado Bluegrass Music Society. The Costellos are living a version of “the American dream”— traveling as a family (4 kids, the youngest is 6) in an old converted school bus, hitting mostly RV parks in the Sun Belt this winter, busking for a living…and making it!… Read More

Recommended Summer Banjo Stay-Cation (or Anywhere) Adventure…The Pleasures, Perks, and Lessons of Busking

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I’ve been “playing in the street” since I was a teenager, going back to my pre-college summer, at the short-lived Freedomland amusement park in NY City. My folk trio played in a high-traffic spot for a few hours, and then took the coins from the open guitar case and spent them all, replacing the fluid we sweated that afternoon.… Read More