Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Street Sounds

HOST LEDE: They say music soothes the savage beast, but what about the savage commuter? At Bart stations throughout the Bay Area many local musicians speak the universal language with hopes of receiving a donation or a smile from the busy rail users. Maybe you've seen some of them, the blind keyboard player singing gospel at 16th and mission. The lovely Bart Balladeer and her soft high pitched voice you can find at 19th St. The man playing Mexican folk songs at fruitvale station or, the old Chinese man playing the two stringed violin at civic center. Today we get to know a few of the people who make our commmute a little bit sweeter. KALW contributor, Malcolm Marshall reports.

AMB 1: guitar fades in... (:0 to:04)

AX 1: Hi my name is Arpeggio. And I am a street musician. I was born in New England. I’ve been here a few years. I call it home now and I love it. This is a martin backpacker guitar. I just got it as gift on Christmas. A lot of people ask me "is that a guitar"? because of the shape. if you could see it, its got a very, very thin body. And people express curiosity as to whether its from another part of the world. its actually just a martin backpacker guitar. And Its a wonderful instrument. I've been playing guitar about 20 years, performing about 15 years in different blues bands, rock bands, solo settings...different genres of music. And right now I'm gearing up to record a cd and do some tours of coffee houses and on to bigger and better things. Before I was doing this here in San Francisco it always meant a lot to me to hear some nice music amongst the hustle and bustle of the pushiness and the stressfulness of going to and from work. And the general stress of a commute. And it was always really nice, and there were many mornings I was in not the greatest mood. Just to hear a few notes of one gentleman, Carlos who plays down here, Spanish guitar would just lift me up, put me in a good mood. And get me through the days work. (2min 10 sec)

AX 2: Hey my name is Ben Martin. I'm here just to hold up the walls. A true performer doesn't talk about his expenses. You know, just something from inside man, you gotta groove with the music that's in the soul. That was Johan Sebastian Bach. Minuet in G. Its a good song. Johan new his stuff. ( 2min 39sec)

AX 3: You know why I give money to anybody? Because I've been homeless. My name is Kevin Harry Alexander. I'm from Philadelphia. I'm a Afro American gay male.

AX: 4My name is Katie. I like to support local musicians. I'm a musician myself. And uh, he's out here sharing his music with us and I want to keep on doing it.
AX: 5My name is Michael. Oh I think its great. And some of the musicians are really good musicians. I wish they made more money doing it. But its like the only public music we really get. There's some places like Cuba where the government will pay bands to play for people, but we don't get that. But we get this. I think most people have places to go so they don't notice. But maybe they feel it a little bit you know, in a subliminal way. (3 in 28 sec)

AX 6: My name is Alex Williams. Playing tenor saxophone. I love to play for people you know. I get great satisfaction out of it.
Give me a chance to express myself. And also people donate a certain amount of money to me and that helps me a lot. If I can't play my horn my day aint made. You know. If I don't be playing out here, I'll be at home practicing a couple hours. And after that my day is made. I can deal with other things. But if I don't play my horn aint nothing happening man. Aint nothing happening for me. ( 4min 33 sec)

AX 7: This is Charles T. I'm from Berkeley , CA. I was raised in the city of Vallejo. The city of Sly and the Family Stone. Matter of fact they helped teach me how to play the guitar. Especially Freddie Stewart. Well first of all I have a love to do it. And I have faced the fear of coming out here and facing all people. And it has really increased my ability to express the soul expression that now flows out. I play a rhythm and a blues in jazz formation chords and its all originality. This is one of my latest new ones here uh... I haven't put a name to this one yet. But I think they going to enjoy this one. (5 min 20 sec)

AMB POST: (singing until 7 min 41sec)