# From the streets to fame? (Musicians)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-the-streets-to-fame-musicians/523106>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [December 30, 2009, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-the-streets-to-fame-musicians/523106 "2009-12-30T23:19:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-the-streets-to-fame-musicians/523106/1 "2009-12-30T23:19:34Z")

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Has there ever been a street musician who virtually earned his living by playing in the streets, who later became a famous, recording artist?

(I’d like to exclude classic blues musicians, because there are likely a lot of them who would fit this pattern)

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**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-the-streets-to-fame-musicians/523106/2 "2009-12-31T01:56:23Z")

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I am back from a long day, so I am sure I am missing obvious ones, but the jazz guitarist \*\*Stanley Jordan \*\*- he plays with a wonderfully unique two-handed tapping technique - played on NY streets before he broke loose…

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**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-the-streets-to-fame-musicians/523106/3 "2009-12-31T02:00:14Z")

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I don’t know if she would qualify as “famous”, but Mary Lou Lord went from busker to recording artist under Sony’s WORK label.

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**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-the-streets-to-fame-musicians/523106/4 "2009-12-31T02:44:59Z")

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The Violent Femmes were seen playing on the street by a member of The Pretenders and were offered a set during their show that night.

[Cite](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violent_Femmes)

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**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-the-streets-to-fame-musicians/523106/5 "2009-12-31T03:30:01Z")

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“Famous” is relative. If you’ve heard of these people and know who they are, they’re famous. If you’ve never heard of them then they’re not.

[**Loreena McKennitt**](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qQHlWkSM_o) started out busking Celtic harp in Toronto. [cite](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loreena_McKennitt)

[**Katell Keineg**](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bZx6bpzMZI)started busking at age 16. [cite](http://users.rcn.com/samlambert/katell/oc.html)

I could have sworn I read once that **Lisa Gerrard** was a busker in Australia before she met Brendan Perry and formed [Dead Can Dance](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLBQfKt18CA), but I can’t find a link anywhere.

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**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-the-streets-to-fame-musicians/523106/6 "2009-12-31T05:58:55Z")

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I first heard of Billy Bragg as a busker, but [his Wikipedia page](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Bragg) says that he had a band beforehand. As is usual for record companies, they re-wrote his history to suit themselves.

[Michelle Shocked](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Shocked) is fairly unique in that she had a hit record without knowing she did, or even intending to release a record. Her album _The Texas Campfire Tapes_ was a Walkman recording of her playing songs around a campfire at the Kerrville Folk Festival.