I originally wrote the song "On the Street Again" in the 1970s, and this year I revised it, reworked parts of it, and added a new stanza in the middle that enlarges the true story it tells about the first time I performed in public, busking on the streets of New Orleans during the week of Mardi Gras in 1970. I started re-working this song in September, at the same time as I was working on a painting of three buskers at Mardi Gras.
Back in mid-October I had posted a video of the stages of the painting taking shape, with a couple of work-in-progress stanzas of my revised song (now called "On the Street Again, Revisited") as accompaniment. At the time I thought I was a few days away from a finished version of the "new" song. But then, opportunity knocked. My friend, brilliant musician Noah Zacharin, had recently moved to a rural location in Ontario, and was putting together a new recording studio. He wanted to try out and practice working with some new hardware and software, to which end, he solicited works-in-progress from his friends for him to add guitar tracks to.
I jumped at the chance and redoubled my efforts to nail down a performance that would be good enough for him to "finish" with his guitar. I sent it to him on a memory stick by snail mail, and he graciously, patiently and diligently, with multiple "back-and-forths" between us, got me to articulate what I was looking for, and came up with the perfect track. The song feels finished now, ready to meet the world.
The new stanza is the one about the money in the hat, the 3rd stanza in the song. That was an anecdote with which I would introduce this song when performing. Having the idea to actually incorporate it into the song is what got me interested in working on it again, modifying both the way I play it and some of the lyrics.
This used to be played 100% clawhammer, but it's become about 30% thumb lead two finger picking worked in strategically within the clawhammer. My old Whyte Laydie banjo is tuned in "standard C" tuning: gCGBD. The harmonica bits are played on an F harmonica, played cross-keyed in C (until now, I had always played this one straight, i.e. in the same key in which the harmonica is tuned).
My banjo, harmonica and vocal track was recorded in Montreal West, Québec in late October 2021. Noah Zacharin recorded his guitar part on an old Gibson J-50 guitar at an undisclosed location in rural Ontario in late November 2021.
lyrics
LYRICS:
It was Mardi Gras in New Orleans; I didn’t have no one to call.
I went out on the street, and I just called to no one at all.
And Margaret, she came and told me - she didn’t have nowhere to go.
So, we went up t’ my room, in some run-down hotel, and turned---- the lights down low.
And listened to the endless sounds in the street down below,
Where they were singing songs that echoed in my soul.
Yellow light poured through the window as I was standing with Mike, the guitar man.
I was bangin’ on my banjo, like I had a claw-hammer for a hand.
And Margaret, she sang to me, and she told me of her pain.
She was crying out in anger, and whispering---- in shame.
She sang of how this life she’d led now seemed, at last, in vain.
She was singing songs that echoed in my soul.
We were busking in the jam-packed French Quarter, collecting coin in a hat on the ground.
Some guy even offered to help us out, by passin’ that hat around.
And just as our set was ending, he held the hat up: it was filled to the brim.
Then he vanished in the dark of the night, and all that money---- disappeared with him.
We were left behind, broke & hungry, so we started all over again
Into singing songs that echoed in my soul.
Well, me and Mike and Margaret, we sang almost all night long.
Seemed like everything we’d ever felt just came pouring out in song.
And Margaret’s voice rang out, like a harmonica lost in the night
Singin’ on the crowded street, where we watched some drunken bikers start a fight.
One‘v ‘em got shot through the head that night, but we just kept on keeping on
Singing those songs that echoed in my soul.
Well, the nickels and dimes crawled in, and turned into dollar bills.
We kept on with our singing, while the people filled our till.
Until the guardians of law & order came, to sweep us off the street.
And we ducked into an all-night bar, and grabbed the only---- remaining seats.
Then a voice on that barroom’s jukebox just went searing through my brain.
It was singing songs that echoed in my soul.
We sat there in Bonaparte’s - and ate and drank up all our bread.
We should’ve kept our money for that run-down hotel room instead.
And Margaret, she was so tired just at the moment when
All our stuff was gittin’ tossed out the window, and we were on---- the street again.
And I started back at beating on my banjo, and I tried my best to smile,
While we were singing songs that echoed in my soul.
credits
released November 29, 2021
Marc Nerenberg: vocal, banjo, harmonica
Noah Zacharin: guitar
Marc Nerenberg is a veteran Montreal folksinger who plays old time banjo styles and blues harmonica. He has a narrative-
centric repertoire, recounting stories in song and wrapping stories around songs. You may “be drawn in by a combination of Marc’s mastery of traditional banjo styles, his idiosyncratic singing, and [his] richly detailed ballads.” (Mike Regenstreif – Folk Roots/Folk Branches 2019)...more
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