Austin, Texas

Matt playing with my bone

The last stop on my busking tour was Austin, Texas. It was 9pm by the time I got to the famous 6^th street on my first night. Business was good. For such an iconic music town, I found very little busking competition.

Half an hour into my set a group of guys walked past.

“Hey, I’ll give you $100 to follow us around all night” one of them said. Sounded like a good deal to me but they’d continued walking.

"Really?” I yelled after him.

“Yeah, I’m serious” he said, now on the other side of the road, “I’ll give you $100 to follow us around”.

It was worth a shot. I hastily shoved everything into my case, slung it over my shoulder and crossed the road, trombone in hand.

Matt pulled a 100 dollar bill from his pocket and handed it to me.

“So you just want me to follow you around and play?” I asked

“Yeah, just play whatever”

He turned along with his mates. I followed, kicking things off with ‘Oh When the Saints’. People gawked as we walked down the street, Matt waving his hands around, marching up front.

Next thing I knew we were going into a bar. A cheer went up as we entered. Matt conducted me until I finished the song.

Applause. Shots. Random people handing me money. Repeat.

Turns out Matt and his mated worked at bars along the strip and knew everyone that mattered. They all seemed more than happy to partake in the shenanigans. Even the place that had live music invited me to join in.

An unknown number of bars in an unknown number of hours later I stumbled back to my hostel, hundreds of dollars richer.