Busker - Tales of a Renegade Harpist

This 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. Fundamentally it is about learning to live life to the fullest--on one's own terms--the author's quest.

In August of 2007, bureaucrats from Washington State Ferries booted Celtic harpist and regional icon David Michael off the ferryboats for reasons of “Homeland Security.” The capsizing of his seventeen-year career performing free on-board concerts touched off a media storm that prompted him to write this book.

BUSKER highlights include:

· The outlandish and often hilarious details of one busker’s forty-year career entertaining around the globe…from cafés on the isle of Crete to the walking streets of Scandinavia and the ferryboats of Puget Sound.
· Selections from the media maelstrom touched off by the actions of Washington State Ferries and the saga of his struggle with the nation’s largest ferryboat bureaucracy. Brilliant pieces of satire by many fine writers are included.
· An exploration of the much maligned/beloved art of busking and the lifestyle of a street performer. 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.
· A gritty and humorous travelogue of five summers of street music exploits and misadventures in Europe.
· Colorful coming-of-age stories of Michael as a teen, venturing through the turbulent sixties’ culture of anti-war uprisings and psychedelic voyages before breaking into the seventies when he honed his music performance skills from an Israeli kibbutz to the seamy underbelly of Hollywood Boulevard.
· A bonus section—50 HOT TIPS FOR BUSKERS with invaluable pointers and lessons for novice and expert buskers alike. Fun for all—even for those with no interest in trying their hand at it.

BUSKER – Tales of a Renegade Harpist is dedicated to buskers everywhere: those seekers of beauty and spreaders of mirth—all the brave souls willing to traverse “improper channels” in order to share their creative spirit.