Love That Album Episode 186 - Interview with Cary Baker about the book "Down On The Corner: Adventures In Busking And Street Music"

It's been said that the mark of a great city is how it promotes the arts. Thinking specifically about busking or street performing, some cities actively encourage musicians to perform in parks, streets, and other outdoor surrounds. THAT is a town devoted to the arts. Welcome to episode 186 of Love that Album. Cary Baker is a native of Chicago who has had a great career in music publicity and has worked with some of the most well known bands in the US during his stint at IRS and Capitol records. However, his passion has always been with those musicians who performed on street corners or at markets. He's written a great new book called Down On The Corner: Adventures in Busking and Street Music. He tells a bit about his own origins with buskers and how that led to much of the work that followed. Many famous artists started out as buskers before gaining popularity in the more conventional spheres of the music loving world. The vast majority of busking musicians, however, continue to perform for years on city streets, with that being the means to an end. Cary's book is American-centric with a little bit of a look “across the pond” as Americans call it, but it's still a fascinating look at the stories behind musicians you know and many you don't. Cary joins me to tell some of the stories from the book as well as his own origins at Maxwell Street Market in Chicago.. We had a great conversation. This could have gone for a couple of hours, but time didn't allow for it, but I really love what's there, and hope you do too. This is the documentary that we discuss in the show: Check out Cary's website at If you’ve been enjoying the show, please consider giving us a favourable review on iTunes and let your friends know that our show exists. If you don't enjoy the show, tell your adversaries to tune in. We don't care who listens..... Love That Album is proudly part of the Pantheon Network of music podcasts. Check out all the other wonderful shows at You can send me feedback at rrrkitchen@yahoo.com.au (written or mp3 voicemail) or join the Facebook group at You can download the show by searching for Love That Album on whatever podcast app you favour (except Spotify). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You can listen to Love That Album Episode 186 - Interview with Cary Baker about the book "Down On The Corner: Adventures In Busking And Street Music" online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Love That Album Episode 186 - Interview with Cary Baker about the book "Down On The Corner: Adventures In Busking And Street Music" is an episode from Love That Album by Pantheon Media.

This episode is 71:02 long.

This episode was published on Jun 29, 2025.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Love That Album when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.