Rounding off a 2nd week ...

I’m not sure if it’s down to the fact that I’m only playing my own songs or if it would be the same if I were playing ‘songs we know and love’ but I’m finding that I get much more interest when playing in smaller places than in large towns.

I have a friend staying with me since I moved and as she isn’t from Ireland, I’m doubling up as a tour guide and, as she’d expressed an interest in going to Sligo and as Friday was another beautiful sunny day, Sligo it was.

Aside from a few shillings in the bank - topped up by IMRO’s recent royalty distribution - busking is my only source of income right now and so most of the time I’m avoiding driving too far and, once I cover my fuel, food and a few bob toward next months rent, I’m happy.

It’s been quite a few years since I was in Sligo - a stunning county with mountains that look like mountains - and the last time I busked inhere was evening and every second car driving round and round the one way system seemed to be a souped up tin can with stuffed with sneering louts who can’t seem to decide whether they want to have the music system or exhaust to do the most peace disturbing (sorry about ‘Grumpy Old Man’ moment)

Friday, we arrived to a much improved Sligo. Got parking at a shopping centre with a max daily rate of €3 and had a quick wander around with the lady, leaving Clara minding the car - and my guitar. A nice vibe with a lot of people on the streets so it was looking very good for busking.

Short version: after about 3 hours, playing in a decent doorway of a shop with ‘To Let’ notices, just before a set of lights - so no noisy traffic - and withe the door set back and so a good acoustic and space for us not to be in the way, I roughly calculated that about one in 70 passers by would throw something into a busker’s case.

After paying for parking, I had a whopping €7.50 in my bag.

Out to Strandhill to walk/swim the dog and admire the scenery and maybe do an hour or so of busking - if it felt right - it did and the hour I did there covered fuel - the BEST fish and chips at ‘SHELLS’ cafe by the sea and probably even a day’s rent on my lovely house.

Disappointing discovery.

That was Friday and Saturday brought the tour to Granard, Co. Longford. It was a lovely drive and on arriving to a very quiet town, a short drive showed me that the only activity was at the top of the town - Super Value store. To be polite, I asked for permission but was told that they would only allow any sort of collections or busking by appointment and that today, there was a charity collection - who were gone to lunch. Fair enough.

I did play for around 45 minutes in the middle of the town - a passer by every third song. A woman dressed on the eccentric side of bo-ho stopped and listened to a couple of songs - dancing with herself - and then went fishing in her handbag and pulled out a toy squirrel and dropped it into my case and danced away smiling. The €1.20 dropped in over the next half hour may have covered the petrol to Longford where I did another couple of hours and discovered, though a nice young guy playing there, that Tesco don’t seem to take issue with buskers playing outside the store - one for the future.

Clara is very happy with the squirrel.