The Dusty Buskers -

Old-timey/Celtic Revival and Nontraditional Traditional Music

The Dusty Buskers

"A busker isn't a panhandler. Making people smile is a noble profession."

The Dusty Buskers
P.O. Box 86134
Tucson, AZ 85754-6134
United States
thedustybuskers@gmail.com

THE STORY

The tale of The Dusty Buskers ("the band that fits on a bike") begins on New Year's Eve 2006, in an alcove on 4th Avenue in Tucson, AZ, when new friends sang songs to the revelers en route between the local taverns.

By summer of that year, Fiddlin' Uncle Phoenix and Dusty Squirrelfisher were performing "idiosyncratic" up-tempo old-timey bluegrass music for passersby on an almost daily basis. They honed their craft by playing for smiles and tips of all kinds.

Moving their act indoors to saloons and cafes across Southern Arizona and the Southwest, the Buskers humbly offer their unique arrangements of Americana and Irish tunes full of hobos, heartbreak, trains, and spirits - the kinds you drink from a bottle, the ones that haunt after death, and the sort that need lifting.

The Dusty Buskers may also still be found playing for pedestrians of all ages at street fairs, farmers markets and on sidewalks and street corners near you.

THE LATEST CHAPTER

Three-time TAMMIES (Tucson Area Music Awards) winners The Dusty Buskers, perhaps the most unique item to emerge from the Sonoran Desert since the crested saguaro, proudly announce the release of their second self-produced album – "A Hypomanic Evening With…" on Old Bisbee Records, Southern Arizona's "beatific" record label of Western medicinal music.

The rowdy and raucous-sounding CD was recorded live from Studio 2A by KXCI 91.3 FM's own Ginger Doran and mastered by Stuart Oliver of Old Bisbee Records. "A Hypomanic Evening With…" features ten tracks of the Dusty Buskers' signature fast-paced, high-energy versions of bluegrass, Celtic folk and old-timey Americana tunes, with an 80s punk twist or two.

The blisteringly unbridled album perfectly captures the soul of the Dusty Buskers' "beat up from the street up" anarchic spirit and the flavor of their systematically maniacal attack on traditional music. Fans of the band will not be disappointed. Newcomers will be enthralled.

Having won the hearts of audiences in Tucson's saloons, taverns and cafes; captured the attention of passersby in backyards and on street corners in Tombstone, Willcox, Arivaca and Boulder, CO; performed in nightclubs in Austin, TX, Phoenix and Bisbee; and frolicked at venues in Silver City, Taos and Truth or Consequences, NM, the Dusty Buskers have defied the odds, overcome their personal struggles and shrugged away their inner demons to present the world with their happy-go-lucky, idiosyncratically melodic and infectious music. The Dusty Buskers is an act not to be missed.

"A Hypomanic Evening With…" showcases the band's 2008 three-man lineup of core members Fiddlin’ Uncle Phoenix and Dusty Squirrelfisher joined by washboard player The Mighty Joel Ford of local act The El Camino Royales. The Buskers' current lineup includes award-winning banjo player Rudy Cortese, and singer/songwriter and music teacher Dylan Charles on mandolin.

The Dusty Buskers have shared the stage and held it down with noteworthy national acts such as Great American Taxi, The Devil Makes Three, Fishtank Ensemble, The Weary Boys, Leslie and The Badgers, Pine Leaf Boys, Green Mountain Grass, James Intveld, Young Dubliners and others.

"The secret ingredient in the Dusty Buskers' performances is a palpable energy and momentum. It's not as if they place traditional music as a static museum piece."

– Tucson Weekly

"A folk music that's the perfect fit for its time and place."

– Catfish Vegas, BlogSpot.com

"A wild-assed punked-out group, one half Old Time Wild Man and the other half rowdy Irish Bar Band...If they played in a cemetery, even the ground would probably start rocking."

– Tucson Friends of Traditional Music News

"Foot-stomping fun that sounds great."

– Downtown Tucsonan

"A fun and funky trio, full of energy and enthusiasm." – Silver City Sun-News

"People can't help but stop and listen."

– Arizona Daily Star

"Celtic-bluegrass tunes with a punk attitude and a subversive comedic slant."

– TucsonScene.com

"The Dusty Buskers have possibly OD'd on happiness, but they seem more than willing to share some."

– The Artist Formerly Known As Larry

"You guys rock the streets like a 9-year-old jacked up on Mountain Dew."

- Rainbow Warrior, Artist Unknown Productions

"The Dusty Buskers' renditions of traditional Irish songs have a rough authenticity. The Buskers sound almost as if one were in a Galway pub, seated at the next table over, listening to old music being played by old friends."

- TucsonSentinel.com