Last Wassailing Day in the NYC Subway

Today was my last wassailing day of 2016 in the NYC subway: ╰☆╮A guy told me it is 3 years now that I have been putting a smile on his face. ╰☆╮A guy from Texas told me last time he visited NYC I was his favorite NYC subway busker. He has been telling his friends…

Read More

Just Like Marlene Dietrich

They say if you sit in one place long enough in the NYC subway, eventually everyone will pass by you. Today it felt true: I just started my day busking at the 34th street subway station. A man came over, put a dollar in my donations’ bucket and said: “my grandmother played the musical saw”.…

Read More

A Glimpse Into People’s Souls

I was playing ‘Danny Boy’ at the 14th street subway station when a man approached me with such a look on his face. He told me he is a writer and was just coming back from a meeting with a publisher, who accepted his first book. The book is about Ireland. He walked into the subway…

Read More

Poetry and Art

If I didn’t play the musical saw in the NYC subway, I would miss out on meeting some of the most wonderful people in the world whom I’ve met in the subway. One such gentleman is Jeffrey Dayton, who surprised me with a beautiful poem he wrote: You are the saw lady Natalia Paruz Your…

Read More

Nobody Gets Out of this Alive

As I got off the train at the Union Square subway station two guys who were getting on the train said: “Saw Lady! How are you?” Just as I started to play, Chill, who sings on the trains with his acapella group, came to say ‘hi’. He told me that he was just released from…

Read More

You Can Hear Their Screams

Today I had a permit to busk at the 14th street subway station. A couple from Australia bought my CD. They said they heard the musical saw in Australia and that they are going to start a fan club for me there 🙂 A lady said: “It sounds like Heaven”. Saw Lady: “Thank you” Lady:…

Read More

Fashion Week

Many people think that buskers (street performers) only perform on the streets and subways. In reality, busking is only a part of every street musician’s career. Last week I played at the NYC Fashion Week, for designer Yeohlee’s runway show: (please stop the player on the right hand side of the blog before playing the…

Read More

Mostly New Yorkers

I was suffering from lower back pain for the first time ever. Somehow a bone moved out of place in my pelvis and I had to skip two busking permits on account of being in too much pain. Normally I drag my busking gear up and down staircases in the subway, but today, due to…

Read More

Occupational Hazards

The train rolled slowly into the subway station, on account of the track workers repairing the tracks. As the first car went by me the train driver smiled and nodded at me. Two track workers passed by me as I was waiting to get into the train. One of them asked me how I was…

Read More

People Showed Me Their Hands

As I was setting up to play on the platform at 59th street, a guy asked me how much it costs to get a permit to play in the subway. He said he busks in Boston, playing guitar and singing, and that its very different the way busking works over there. Buskers don’t have to…

Read More