Blues Man Takes It To The Streets In Europe

This Time It’s Paris, France

A traveling blues  guitarist takes us on a tour  around Paris, where he explores the  locality  and  performs in  a few well  familiar places.

The city of the Eiffel Tower, Moulin Rouge and the Notre Dame Cathedral is  also home to  an incredibly diverse  gathering of  humanity struggling to live and breathe in  this great city.

Lets Play The Blues On The  Underground

The Paris underground is the densest system  on the globe , and  some  of the statistics are impressive. For example, there are  more than 300  stopping points and in the whole of Paris there is  nowhere more than  four hundred meters from a station! The  conglomeration has  additionally been a traditional haven for the ‘street  musician’. As I’m one those fabled creatures, I  thought I’d  take a look.

How Does One Start?

One would guess that you just go and do it -  oh nothing so simple ! That romantic  way of thinking has long  long ago disappeared. The whole thing is  regulated  nowadays and new  candidates  have to  sit an audition (yes – a real  one!)  arranged by the street music performance department of  RATP, the guys that  operate  the metro.

And there’s more – each year, the best of the Paris metro  performers are recorded in a professional studio and an album is  made for  commercial sale to the public – we’re not in Kansas any more!. As usual, the  genre of the music varies  a lot , going  from tin whistle  players to delta blues.  Several  well known French stars  have been found down here.

Of course,  you must adhere to a few rules,  such as ‘no amplifiers’, ‘no CD sales’, etc. I  would obviously have to  bend   a few of those, I’m ashamed to admit. However, in this life nothing ever works out how you want it to …

And Now For The Big Audition -  Help !

I  took  a train,  guitar case in hand (sounds like  a classic blues song, doesn’t it?) in the South of France and  several  hours later  I was sitting in a small room in the Metro offices,  patiently waiting for the  test  to  begin .  I figured that  I’d  play 4 of my best and sing  like a bird – ‘ need this license,  need this license’ was my mantra. It was the key to  untold wealth beyond my wildest dreams (and they could get pretty wild.)

It seemed logical that, I  thought , my skills would be assessed by a  very experienced  team of pros. This  may  be  tricky . I tuned my guitar and waited, almost nervously. A man  walked in,  turned  on a video camera and said “Hello – play something.”  After that he sat down and  appeared to read a  paper ! Unperturbed, I  started  a  rather loud  rendition  of Love In Vain  from the blues guitar of Robert Johnson, at which he raised an eyebrow. After  demanding if I played  something   close to  modern, to which I  said no, he informed me that the audition was  at an end and I would  receive a letter in a few days.  That was all really .

I took the  metro to Montmartre, had lunch with my mum-in-law who lives  close by, and  took the train  back down south.  Funnily enough,  several days  after that I got an  letter of acceptance  and planned my first day performing in the French capital.
I Love Paris In The Springtime, When It  Glitters…

Sorry to let you down, dear reader, but  I found that the  underground  was – a bit of a let down. Well, that’s not quite true. It  just wasn’t  what I  hoping for, that was all. I arrived one cold  day and  went into the nearest station to  secure a spot.  That  was  my first  error. there are so many musicians, so  it’s necessary to  turn up  very  early to make sure you have a  good  spot .  In fact , like real estate,  the buzz word is  location, location, location.

Mind you, I saw some  good   music  while I was  looking around, a  complete  range of musical  styles from  classical to African drums. In one station crossover  access link  (these  are often big!) I happened upon half a Russian  band , complete with a dancer.  It was suddenly obvious, the rules  laid down  by the authorities  didn’t mean much  underground. Maybe  75 per cent  of all performers use  amps  and  very often  sell  albums. I can  appreciate why this is, in my  city (where I play blues guitar on the street), CD sales account for  fifty per cent of street based income.

A Success Story – Sax Always Sells

Paradoxically, the people  who make the most money  are the ones that  didn’t get  a  license, and don’t  even perform in the  traditional places .  Let me tell you how they work . These musicians often  have a  saxophone, or trumpet, or an accordion (of course) and  play for  the passengers actually using the trains. I  went with one  of these guys  on one of his trips and we chatted a little, as we were  soul brothers,  you could say.

He  took a train for five  stations,  blowing jazz  saxophone over a backing tape. I found him to be  really  good at  his music and he engaged people, which is  a good trick to pull off in  the  city. He would the repeat the trip in the opposite direction for eight hours  each  day.

It was nice  to  go back  into fresh air and daylight again,  reflecting that the life of a musical troglodyte is not  my cup of tea. The rest of  that  day was spent looking around some  areas of this  nice  city, and  banging out a  tune or two in some prime locations above ground.