Studio Quality Live Streaming

Not busking per se, but I was playing with my band Longneck Road on a stage in the street at a Mardi Gras event one year when an amazingly strong cold front blew in. The stage was about 6 feet high and the PA speakers were on stands another 5 feet in the air. We were facing south, so when the front hit -- with horizontal rain and about 50 mph winds -- both of my PA speakers flew out from the stage and down somewhere between 10 and 12 feet to the ground!

Every embarrassing moment has involved someone asking to "sit in," leading me and my band to adopt an absolute policy of no one sits in unless we know them and we ask them! I learned fast that real musicians do not ask to sit in on someone else's gig. It is amazing how quickly a drunk who swears he can really "work the crowd" can clear a room!

My favorite electric guitar is a tele style guitar that I built from an $89 kit. After some upgrades and setup by David Newton, an awesome luthier from Beaumont, Texas, I have a little more than $89 in it, but it is cool that I have a guitar that I worked on that was really cheap and that plays better than lots more expensive guitars. I haven't found the perfect acoustic guitar yet ... currently use a Carvin acoustic for gigs. It's great, but I'd really like a custom-built acoustic (See David Newton, above!) or an old Gibson. Someday.