From the recording High Tea for Poets/Father Time (2CD-Pak)
Jeff Cannon: Lead and backing vocals, acoustic guitar, bass
Jim Hoke: Pedal steel guitars
Max Frank: Cello
John Mettam: Drums and percussion
Recorded 2012-13, Brooklyn Recording, Brooklyn, NY; Primary Sound, Bloomington, IN; Jim Hoke, Nashville, TN; Jeff Cannon.
JDC: Another song about the shift toward consumerism and the increasing requirement that people serve a corporate master. The Busker is a metaphor for the artist who must now work against a corporate grid to be heard.
Lyrics
The Busker
See the king of big adventure,
Dodging stop-walks on the city street,
Mother sent me, not my brothers,
All alone, yeah, Hallelujah,
“Don’t be long,” she said,
“And don’t you stop on the way,
And if a stranger asks for the time,
Look away, look away,
There is danger across the divide
On DeVries Avenue.”
But I gave the time, and we shared our news,
And so I learned the Southside views,
And our frozen worlds were melting fine,
Out on the street we shared the time,
Then, in a house on fire,
All the walls tore away,
And I was told to say my good-byes,
Yeah, they sold that deal
Like they promised a new and improved
Devries Avenue.
Every day I pray for sunshine,
That’s the one sign that predicts my day,
Hang a dark cloud, I can’t speak now,
Good-bye old town, hello stillness.
When the old north wind
Hauls the last cloud away,
And leaves a monument there to the strong,
From the other side, I'll come
Busking for your loose change,
On Devries Avenue