I loved to see this little article in the Paper of Record about a Polish busker who plays blues in NYC. I never fail to be impressed by the broad range of people who are positively inspired by blues, and in that respect I don’t mean the musician but the many many people who genuinely enjoy his playing. The blues is such a simple format that it draws people in no matter what walk of life they come from. Even the comments on this story make this clear — the one guy who complains about the actual musicianship of this Polish street musician is smacked down authoritatively, basically because he misses the point.
The absurdity of a Polish immigrant making up floating lyrics on a street corner in Chelsea makes me smile to even think of it. There’s also a video of him playing and explaining a little about what he does. You can never kill the blues because it’s always going to sprout up in unlikely places, like some sort of flowering weed in the concrete.
Singing the Polish Blues in Chelsea – City Room – Metro – New York Times Blog