Guts & Soul: Looking for Street Music and Finding Inspiration

Ever walk down a city street and hear music in the distance? And then all of a sudden, it’s the most amazing sound, a performance of something new or exciting that just fundamentally alters the way things look? Even just for a moment?

It happens to me all the time. I find a lot of inspiration and new perspectives in street music.

It comes in a fleeting glance of an African rhythm, a Bach melody, or a band jamming on a Second Line riff. Maybe it’s a drummer from Trinidad, a classical musician from China, or a guitarist from Syria. It could be someone from this very neighborhood, it doesn’t really matter. It’s happening on the street, somewhere, even right now.

Because street music has been a source of inspiration to me for as long as I can remember, I wanted to go out and collect it, share it, offer it up for the inspiration of others.

For the past two years, I’ve traveled to the major cities of the U.S. to make a documentary (coming soon) that shares the inspiration I’ve discovered. From New York to Venice Beach, New Orleans to Chicago, San Francisco to Boston, I captured music that I wanted to share so others could be inspired, too.

This story is about impressions and reality, about the images and the facts of making music on the street. It’s about going out there and playing hard, pounding out a gig, day after day. Guts.

And it’s about the human connection, the expression of something personal and amazing - something that fascinates our ears, eyes, and heart, and brings us together for a moment. Soul.

This is my story, the images from my documentary that share my discoveries, the music that gave me new vistas of inspiration. Join me and find out for yourself just how exciting guts and soul can be!