Troubadour Travels Book Review by JACK DIAMOND
'For someone who didn’t have too much idea of what was going on in the world outside Australia, the thought of travelling around the world playing music to different cultures seemed an interesting, exciting and very scary prospect. ...I left Australia for the first time in my life in 1987. I bought an around the world ticket for a year, not intending to go for more than a few months. My budget was small, only $1,500 spending money and $1,000 in the bank in case of an emergency. My backpack was just a simple nylon pack with a light aluminium frame. I had my guitar, a Pignose amp, about 8 inches in diameter which ran on 8 large batteries and a guitar cable. I fixed the Pignose to my back pack with wire and gaffer tape, to make it easier to carry.
...If
you want to travel around the world on a working holiday, playing and
performing, earning enough to cover your food, accommodation and
travel expenses, still have enough money left over for other great
times and hardly spend any of your own money... well, welcome to
troubadour travels.'
Graham Cain has condensed decades of practical knowledge and experience into the fifty or so pages of Troubadour Travels – Traveling Musicians Guidebook. The book takes the form of direct, practical, generalised advice. In relation to performing music as a solo artist in small venues and public spaces around the world, Graham Cain really has 'been there and done that' to an extraordinary extent. He has busked in forty-degree heat on a dusty Indian street, and also given a solo concert for a Princess in a French ski resort. While Troubadour Travels is not an autobiography, Graham's fascinating personal story is related through several personal anecdotes within the text and a four-page section at the end of the book entitled My Story. After more than twenty years of being a travelling musician, Graham is showing no intention of slowing down. The travelling troubadour is currently based in Cambodia and perhaps readers can look forward to a future edition of the book featuring Graham's insights on the burgeoning music scenes of Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville and Siem Reap.
Graham Cain has condensed decades of practical knowledge and experience into the fifty or so pages of Troubadour Travels – Traveling Musicians Guidebook. The book takes the form of direct, practical, generalised advice. In relation to performing music as a solo artist in small venues and public spaces around the world, Graham Cain really has 'been there and done that' to an extraordinary extent. He has busked in forty-degree heat on a dusty Indian street, and also given a solo concert for a Princess in a French ski resort. While Troubadour Travels is not an autobiography, Graham's fascinating personal story is related through several personal anecdotes within the text and a four-page section at the end of the book entitled My Story. After more than twenty years of being a travelling musician, Graham is showing no intention of slowing down. The travelling troubadour is currently based in Cambodia and perhaps readers can look forward to a future edition of the book featuring Graham's insights on the burgeoning music scenes of Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville and Siem Reap.
Visit
the author's website www.troubadourtravels.com
for excerpts, photographs and to purchase the book.
The heart of the text is
dedicated to the art of busking. Graham discusses the 'eight
different forms' of street busking, terrace busking ('performing on the
street facing a restaurant'), train busking (comprising of station,
tunnel, platform and carriage busking), 'walking street' busking and
busking around government buildings and monuments. The author details
all the practicalities - from equipment and song choice through to how
to handle your money and the 'rules of the street'. There are a lot
of do's and don'ts here. The author writes with insight and authority
on the subject and has clearly spent a great deal of time pounding
those pavements around the world. The chapter entitled 'dealing
with
street hustlers and other street performers' is particularly
interesting:
'These are the people
who come up to you on the street and ask you for spare change,
cigarettes, etc. As a travelling performer you will have to make
friends
with some of them, in order for you to be left alone to
play. Most of them live and
survive on the streets and more than
likely are a lot worse off than you are.'
Even if a travelling
troubadour has to spend a lot of time earning his keep on the
unforgiving streets of Western Europe, there are also more salubrious
times to look forward to:
'In
Cannes in the south of France, I ended up playing for no money in a
little restaurant, but they gave me a beautiful little room at the
back where I could sleep, with a bathroom. They gave me a nice meal
every day, and I only played a couple of hours a night. During the
day I went busking in walking streets'
The scope of the book
relates to Graham's experiences in Australia, South-East Asia,
Nepal, India, Turkey, North Africa, Western Europe, Scandinavia,
Great Britain and the United States. As well as giving his reader the
skinny on busking, the author gives advice on how to succeed in
playing in regular music venues, small cafes, restaurants and bars,
and even ski resorts. The advice runs from how to find a place in which to
play three songs to finding a job in one venue for seven nights a week.
Troubadour Travels
could be a very inspiring read
for a young person who has
never left their country or never performed before. It just might
give them the confidence to strike out and do something beyond what
they thought they were
capable of. More experienced travellers and musicians may have to
wade through some of the more obvious advice ('if
your guitar has a pick up you will need a cable...')
to get to the real gems. The
layout of the book is well structured and my electronic copy was easy
and pleasurable to read, even if the visuals are somewhat let-down by
some very crude cartoon illustrations. The
style of writing is direct. Graham does not waste any time in telling
the reader exactly how things are.
Troubadour
Travels
contains a great deal of useful, practical information that might
never have occurred to most travelling musicians – hints
and tips that could make the difference between make and break.
Personally
I was inspired by Graham's advice and experiences as a busker. The
author's fearlessness is inspiring. He has put himself in situations
as a performer that most would only dare to dream about. This
book made me want to get out on the street immediately,
armed with Graham's wisdom, picturing
myself in
some of his favourite
places
to busk: France, Germany, Scandinavia and Greece!
The
ideal 'Travelling Troubadour' seems to be, in the author's eyes, an
extremely self-sufficient, self-reliant, streetwise and savvy
individual. It's not an easy world out there, but the author attempts
to equip the reader to deal with it.
'When
I was in Greece, a TV crew from Germany wanted to
interview me about life as a troubadour. I took them on a tour of the
house I was building, and they asked me how I managed to do it. I
took my hat off in a gesture that said, “I’m passing my hat
around, & that’s how I did it.”
...Remember though, that when
passing your hat around, make sure
you follow my tips.'
- Graham Cain, Troubadour Travels
- Graham Cain, Troubadour Travels
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