CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — On a cold October Sunday afternoon in downtown Chicago, the sound of a banjo carried far — all the way from South Dakota — rang out.
WBBM bumped into 23-year-old Isaac Seaton, who stood at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Randolph Street, where he was braving the cold in a T-shirt. He was busy plucking his banjo and collecting tips from passersby.
Seaton said he was having a pretty good day "busking” — playing music in the street for money.
“I’m going to see a band tonight, actually, and as long as I’m going to be in Chicago anyway — there’s nowhere to busk in South Dakota — so I may as well hit it up,” Seaton said.
Seaton, with professorial glasses and a sunny attitude, said back home he works at a coffee shop to pay the bills, though he certainly considers himself a professional musician. He plays with a band called "Gdwflrckt," pronounced “god-awful racket.”
In Chicago, as people passed by, huddled in the cold and occasionally dropping a dollar into his jar, he said he met a real community of fellow "buskers" in just a short time.
“There’s bucket drummers up and down Michigan Avenue, there’s a really nice guitarist I met a couple of days ago [who] I’m really good friends with now,” Seaton said. “You meet a lot of nice people.”
Seaton said he would be headed back to South Dakota next week.
Related
Related
Listen to WBBM Newsradio now on Audacy!