Busking in Burlington
We've certainly got a knack for spontaneity and a yearning for travel. It's no surprise we've moved on from recording to mixing and chosen a completely different scene, Burlington Vermont! If you've never been there before, I'll try to paint a detailed picture for you:
Most of the time, we forget, or almost forget, a thing or two. On that September day in Burlington, it was my egg shaker and his guitar strap. The bustle was just picking up on Church Street, the 65-70 degree bustle, the mosaic of scarves and shorts, flip flops and hooded sweat shirts. We two? Jeans and flannel.
I put myself in fast gear, focus mode, weaving through the outdoor restaurant seating, the coffee shop traffic, the leashed dogs, the distracted children, mothers yanking tiny hands. The car was parked on Main Street near the Green, I rummaged through the trunk, and of course was immediately distracted by, “what if I need this, or THIS?” I’d had at least enough caffeine to power a tractor that morning.
Turning on my heels, I scurried back to that little statue on Church Street, our landmark. I saw his flannel, the one I bought him, and he was buying some time by tuning his Alvarez. He saw me coming and we both relaxed, my cheeks flushed. I rigged a shoelace to his guitar strap in place of the extension we must have left in the studio that morning. We glanced at the set list and we started to play.
The quiet morning quickly livened as people came and went, emerging from restaurants and nearby apartments. A girl asked us to take a video for her long distance boyfriend to show him what living in Burlington is like. “Esto es para ti,” I said to the camera and we started playing one of our original alternative Irish tunes.
Dollars started falling into our guitar case, people stopped to nod to the beat, a man in a wheelchair parked right out in front of us.
I gave a shy little girl my shaker to play, her parents laughed as their family made memories dancing along to our music on the street. Applause occasionally came from the restaurant seating across the brick walkway and we buzzed with the high of making music.
We have now spent a total of 36 hours at Egan Media Productions in Colchester, mixing and recording to produce our debut Album, Matter of Time. Joe Egan’s ear is precise and well trained, a quality that matches the level of his loyal friendship to Barry that began back when they opened Jet Sound Studio after studying together at St. Michael’s College in the late 1980’s. That weekend in September, we took a two-hour break from mixing to play a set at local venue, The Radio Bean, and to busk on Church Street.
That weekend we visited our favorite breakfast joint, took a beautiful walk on Lake Champlain, and connected musically with passersby in town. Each time we go back, we are filled with something, feelings of gratitude and ideas for new connections. He experiences both nostalgia and novelty, and I, pure and raw adventure. It takes a couple of bold moves to find your niche sometimes, and while Burlington is a tad closer to our home than Ireland, be sure to look for us there on occasion!
