Head, Hands and Feet – A Book of One Man Bands
by Dave Harris
ISBN 978-0-9878650-0-7
It takes one to know one. Finally, respect and serious devotion has been bestowed on the one-man bands of the world by one of their own, especially the street musicians, the buskers. OK, so what’s a one-man band (OMB)? Simple, someone who simultaneously plays more than one instrument at the time. It can be something as basic as a string instrument with a harmonica on a rack. Add anything you can think of. Foot pedals, drums, cymbals, horns, whistles, on and on. There is no limit to creativity and innovation. All sorts of contraptions and inventions shape the sub-genre.
Street buskers and OMBs trace their origins to the earliest cities. Street minstrels have been an integral part of European cities, for example, since the Middle Ages, playing in public market squares for small handouts. To this day, while noble musicians in suits perform indoors in fancy concert halls to high paying audiences, the “ignoble” street buskers sit in the elements and play to the people out in the open where they always find a willing audience. Every passerby gets to hear the music. Even the poorest of the poor get to listen. Folks who may otherwise never be exposed to live music have a chance to hear music. It is folk music at its purest level.
Along came Dave Harris, a Canadian busker from British Columbia, hollering “One-man bands of the world – unite.” His new directory is a fun, deep and incisive look deep into the mysterious sub-genre that has been largely ignored or underrated. He covers not only street musicians but all one-man bands, no matter where they play, including well established artists who play the international club and concert circuit. However, the buskers are the majority subjects, and those mostly in need of prominent recognition. The “ignoble” buskers thus far have not been given significant, dignified credence by the highbrowed music establishment, in part because they were outside of the business financial structure. No wonder that the annals of folk music have often snubbed this class of musicians. Too often ignored and marginalized as mere novelty acts, or worst, looked down and ridiculed as lowly and unsophisticated, the OMBs have scarcely been taken seriously, much less received the artistic and musicological respect they deserve.
Nobody on the planet has ever written anything like it, as far as I know, even in this world of information overload when seemingly every topic has been covered, recovered, uncovered and repeated. Here is something completely new and different, a topic looked at with passion and a sparkle in the eye. Dave Harris has produced an exhaustive directory of worldwide one-man bands that is simply marvelous and unique in its audacious supposition that one-man bands not only deserve recognition, but that they are indeed a viable, wonderfully diverse and colorful cultural force.
His new book Head, Hands and Feet – A Book of One Man Bands is impressive on multiple levels. Here is what you get in the Book: Hardcover, 415 pages, 10.75 x 8.5 inches (21.5 x 228 cm) sized pages, filled with hundreds of color photos, very good typography, excellent paper, print and binding quality. For the price it’s a steal.
The directory covers everything you ever wanted to know about OMBs, exhaustively researched and well presented, from the earliest history to artists currently performing all over the world. The collection adds significantly to folk musicology and provides a reference resource worthy of any serious folklorist and lover of folk music. He covers the wide range of musical instruments typical in the genre, and even the most seasoned folklorist may find a surprise or two among the many contraptions and inventions created by these artists.
Worthy country blues musicians who have significantly impacted this sub-genre are Henry Thomas, Daddy Stovepipe, Joe Hill Louis and many more, but Harris devotes fully 20 pages to Jesse Fuller, a deserved homage to a musician obviously held in the highest esteem by the author.
Clearly, the world of OMBs has its share of musical geniuses, idiosyncratic, esoteric individualists who carved their own niche in whatever locality they perform in. Typically, busker OMBs are mostly talented, experienced artists with a unique style and repertoire, who realized that they can emancipate themselves from the grind of the music business. Let’s call them the original “Indie artists.” They are “self-employed individualists” who cut the typical dependency on clubs & venues, promoters, managers, record companies and still manage to make a living doing what they love, while making very many people happy in places and times when people least expect it.
The result is a true cultural treasure, a thorough encyclopedic look at the OMBs worldwide.
There is one big thing that Harris has done here that will not always be on the mind of readers. Many of these wonderful musicians are not highly respected in their own localities. Most don’t have fame and much less fortune. They get by. Their families and children live with their unique and unstable profession without much comfort of financial security or huge outpouring of artistic respect.
Harris’ book finally bestows respect and honor to an honorable profession. For the families of these musicians, as well the musicians themselves, being included in this directory must be a source of tremendous pride. A bit of recognition, a tiny bit of fame and respect goes a long way to establishing dignity, and Dave Harris’ book has done just that. He lifted up some forgotten musicians in this amazing directory and that lift will surely go a million miles in the hearts of the musicians and their families.
You are going to love it!
After this, when you see one coming you will say, “Tip your hats people and take a bow. There goes a one-man band.”
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A note to readers:
Several of you have requested information on how to buy this fine treasure of a book. You can buy it directly from the writer, Dave Harris.
Go to: http://onemanbandbook.
If you don’t have Paypal, email Dave and he will work it out with you.
daveharrisonemanband@gmail.com
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Frank Matheis’ earliest childhood memory is his fascination with a Gypsy organ grinder and his monkey, and some of his best life experiences were busking on the streets in Europe as a youth.