Kev Brown: I do enjoy your day to day busking accounts!...
Robin from Israel: Thank you for doing what you do. Buskers add so much to the ...
les: Sounds like the theme from original Star trek series. I didn...
Saw Lady: Hi Rachel, You are asking a question about something that...
Rachel: Do you have a link to that article or the name of the filmma...
Carol Tulpar: Hello Saw Lady! Lovely sound on this video. Fascinating t...
Saw Lady: Hi Eliza's Mom, I am so glad that you liked the piece wit...

Help support the Saw Lady's blog
by visiting one of our advertisers. Thanks!

Mar

4

You Can Hear Their Screams

March 4, 2010 | Posted by Saw Lady | Playing @ Union Square | no comments | Share This post with your friends

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: “Remember I told you that? It sounds like the music they play in Heaven”.
Funny that the piece I just played happened to be “Canticle of Angels“…

A guy said to me: “It sounds like an insane woman singing - so it’s good to see you with a saw!”

Photographer: Jenni Gehlbach

A young lady told me that her mother always talks about me. “She saw you when she was visiting from CA and you’re her favorite memory from NYC”.

The deaf lady (who really is a deaf mute, not an impostor) went by a couple of times, doing her train rout. She walks the trains placing sign-language cards by people. Then she walks the car again, collecting them back.

Shogo Kubo, the Japanese guitar player, went by with his busking gear. He and I always wear black when playing in the subway. The Gimagua twins who play guitar in the subway always wear black for their busking, too.

Albert, the messenger, told me that he got laid off from his messenger job last month. He now collects unemployment and is looking for a new job. He was in good spirit, though. “I got to get my Natalia fix”, he said, urging me to play.

Photo by Kitty

An elementary school class walked by with their teacher. The teacher stopped the class so that they could listen to me. As the class walked by me on their way down to the platform a girl asked me if I’ve played at their school. I said that I don’t think so. But she insisted, saying “and you were on TV”. Then it hit me - yes! Three years ago I played in front of a school in Harlem during the first Make Music New York Day and it got on the news on TV. There were a whole bunch of kids listening to me from behind the school’s playground’s fence. “Where you there?” I asked the girl. “Yes!”, she said. Amazing that she remembered this occurrence even though it was three years ago. You never know when what you do touches people, and just how deeply it does.

Please turn off the player on the right hand side of the blog before playing the video. Scroll to 0:50 in the video. You can briefly see the kids standing behind the school’s fence behind me, and you can hear their screams at the very end:

The Gimagua twins asked me what time I’ll be done playing today and decided to wait for my spot. At 4pm I handed the spot over to them.

Bookmark my blog to:

Posted by Saw Lady | Playing @ Union Square | no comments | Share This post with your friends

Mar

2

This is New York

March 2, 2010 | Posted by Saw Lady | Playing @ St. George Ferry Terminal | one comment | Share This post with your friends

A man sitting on the stairs leading to the subway station was smoking a cigarette. He offered to help me bring my busking gear up the stairs “as long as it’s not a baby”, he said. At the top of the first flight of stairs he fell to the floor. He immediately got up.
“Are you OK?”, I asked.
“Yes. I have a bad hip”, he said.
“Maybe you shouldn’t help me”, I said.
The man insisted on helping me up the next flight of stairs.

Three MTA construction guys got off the train. “How’s it going?” they said to me.
Saw Lady: “Are you working at this station today?”
Construction men: “All over - we work a bit here, a bit there - everywhere”.
Saw Lady: “Keeps things from getting boring”.
They agreed.

As I got on the escalator leading out of the Whitehall subway station, a gentleman got on behind me.
Gentleman: “They are opening the library”.
Saw Lady: “Huh?”
Gentleman: “They are re-opening the library on Broadway”.
I didn’t understand why he was telling me this, but wanting to be polite I said: “that’s nice”.
Gentleman: “The library on Broadway and Steinway street. I saw you performing there a couple of times”.
Now I got it… He was right, I did perform there many years ago. Wow, this guy has a good memory!

The guard with the bomb sniffing dog greeted me at the entrance to the Whitehall Ferry Terminal: “Are you on this side today?” he asked.
I got to the gate just as it opened to let the ferry passengers through. I boarded the J.F. Kennedy ferry boat. It was a beautiful old one, with wood seats and “life preserves” under each seat (the words “life preserves” are printed on the panels under the seats). Except for the seat I sat on. The sign said it had the “fire hose” under it.
The boat went particularly close to the statue of Liberty today.

At the St. George Ferry Terminal the guard greeted me. His dog, named ‘Chief’, shook hand with me.

A guy named Rafael told me that he used to be an opera singer in the Israel National Opera for ten years. He then moved to New York and worked at the Cardoso Library for sixteen years. Now he works at a cemetery on Staten Island. “The moment I started working at the cemetery it tripled my salary”, he said.
Saw Lady: “At least it’s quiet at your job”.
Guy: “Oh, no, the dead are quiet, but the families…”

At 4pm it was very quiet, so I went to have a hug with Chief, the guard dog. He is 8 and 1/2 years old and is getting ready to retired. Chief will stay with his policeman, who will also get a puppy and continue working. Chief gets trained to sniff for gun-powder through toy reward. Some dogs work with food reward, but Chief is a kid at heart - he loves to play and chase a ball.

While talking with Chief’s cop, a tall guy asked me if I remember him. Turns out he does Frankenstein at the Central Park Halloween event, while I do the Singing Saw Playing Witch every year. He told me that he naturally walks like Frankenstein - it’s not an act with him. His legs are damaged. He lives in a 145 year old apartment that used to house Vaudeville and Burlesque folks. “I hope I get some ghosts”, he said. I would, too, if I lived at such a place.
Besides being Frankenstein on Halloween, the rest of the year he works as a ‘Tyler’ for the Free Masons. This means he opens and closes meetings for them. He gets $700 a month for it.

Three people stood around me to listen: a lady from Brazil, a lady from Puerto Rico and a guy from Zimbabwe. This is New York.

On the way home I boarded the ‘Spirit of America’ ferry boat.

Bookmark my blog to:

Posted by Saw Lady | Playing @ St. George Ferry Terminal | one comment | Share This post with your friends

Feb

27

He Needed It More

February 27, 2010 | Posted by Saw Lady | Playing @ 59th street & Lexington | one comment | Share This post with your friends

At the subway station MTA personnel were working on the station, clearing the walls and hanging up new subway maps. They recognized me as I passed by. “Hey, it’s ‘Saw Lady’”, one of them said. They told me that they will be at the Times Square subway station on Wednesday and asked me if they’ll see me there. I explained that I will be at the St. George ferry terminal that day and they were surprised that I play all the way down on Staten Island.

At the 59th street & Lexington Avenue subway station there were two MTA employees guarding an open man-hole in the middle of the platform. They had it closed up before I was done setting up my busking gear.

A guy with pink hair, wearing Trips clothes, told me that he gave all his money to a tenor singer on the train. “Looked like he needed it more”, he said.

A guy with a tattoo on his neck told me that he is a construction safety inspector. He used to do iron work, got hurt, and went into the safety business. His daughter lives in Massachusetts. She used to do jewelry design but got tired of being at the bottom rung of a company so now she is starting to be a teacher.

Photographer: Adam

Frankie, the guitar player/singer/whistler, showed me a license card he got in 1956 to play in the subway. Way before Music Under New York was established. He said that he got it “downtown”. He was away recently - went to Puerto Rico for his sister’s funeral. His first sister died of Alzheimer’s last March at age 82. Now his second sister died of the same thing, age 80. Frankie is 70 years old.

Bookmark my blog to:

Posted by Saw Lady | Playing @ 59th street & Lexington | one comment | Share This post with your friends

Feb

25

The Day is Better

February 25, 2010 | Posted by Saw Lady | Playing @ Shuttle | no comments | Share This post with your friends

On my way to my Music Under New York busking spot at the Grand Central Station’s Shuttle, I passed by Scout, the rhythm and blues/pop/jazz singer who goes by the name Eunique. He was busking at Times Square.

A lady, upon giving me a donation, said: “What can I say - the day is better!”

A guy told me that there was a musical theater show called ‘The Burnt Part Boys’ at the Vineyard Theater, about mining in 1962, and in this show there is a boy who plays a musical saw but “not very well”, the guy said. He also said that he “didn’t enjoy the show but it did have a musical saw player in it”.

Four kids danced a waltz to my music. At first they were clumsy but then they got better.

At 1:45 Scout said ‘hi’ on his way back home from busking.
At 2:05 Juan Castillo, the charango mandolin player, dressed very nicely in a pressed white shirt, greeted me as he rushed to the train with his busking gear.

Yily Nelson came for his permitted busking spot at 3:30. As I was packing up he played a beautiful Brazilian song on his guitar. He told me that every Wednesday he plays at a restaurant on Broadway and 200th street, with a pianist and a violinist.

On the Shuttle train, on my way back home, the guy who begs for money and talks about his 10 year old daughter was working the crowd.
At Times Square Geo was busking, playing guitar.
When I got to the platform someone was continuing to whistle the song Geo was playing upstairs.

Bookmark my blog to:

Posted by Saw Lady | Playing @ Shuttle | no comments | Share This post with your friends

Feb

23

Fashion Week

February 23, 2010 | Posted by Saw Lady | Playing @ musical saw | one comment | Share This post with your friends

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 video below)

Joonbug Magazine said: “Yeohlee added more texture and dimension to her presentation by accompanying it with a live saw musician in a surreal, artful, and unconventional soundtrack”.

Vogue Magazine compared my playing to the performances of…Yoko Ono.

I don’t know any subway musician who doesn’t also perform at “legitimate” gigs. And I know a lot of subway musicians

Bookmark my blog to:

Posted by Saw Lady | Playing @ musical saw | one comment | Share This post with your friends

Leave a tip. Thanks!

TO TURN OFF MUSIC CLICK ON PICTURE

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

All compositions and arrangements
by Scott R Munson


After paying securely with PayPal you may begin your downloads. Download links will also be emailed to you. Physical merchandise will be shipped to you. Thank you!
Playing on the Edge
	A provocative mix of classical, jazz, new age, and rock - original music by composer Scott R. Munson more
Download all tracks

MP3 Song Downloads
Lame Sonore
You need to upgrade your Flash Player To view this content, JavaScript must be enabled, and you need a newer version of the Macromedia Flash Player. Download the free Macromedia Flash Player now!
Changes
You need to upgrade your Flash Player To view this content, JavaScript must be enabled, and you need a newer version of the Macromedia Flash Player. Download the free Macromedia Flash Player now!
Hidden Behind Nothing
You need to upgrade your Flash Player To view this content, JavaScript must be enabled, and you need a newer version of the Macromedia Flash Player. Download the free Macromedia Flash Player now!
Souvenirs de Paris
You need to upgrade your Flash Player To view this content, JavaScript must be enabled, and you need a newer version of the Macromedia Flash Player. Download the free Macromedia Flash Player now!
A Simple Goodbye
You need to upgrade your Flash Player To view this content, JavaScript must be enabled, and you need a newer version of the Macromedia Flash Player. Download the free Macromedia Flash Player now!
One River (handbells)
You need to upgrade your Flash Player To view this content, JavaScript must be enabled, and you need a newer version of the Macromedia Flash Player. Download the free Macromedia Flash Player now!
Delancey Street Rag (cowbells)
You need to upgrade your Flash Player To view this content, JavaScript must be enabled, and you need a newer version of the Macromedia Flash Player. Download the free Macromedia Flash Player now!


Hark! an Angel Sings
	Eclectic arrangements of Christmas favorites, includes two original
Christmas songs - music arranged and composed by Scott R. Munson more
Download all tracks (inc. artwork and liner notes)

Song Downloads
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
You need to upgrade your Flash Player To view this content, JavaScript must be enabled, and you need a newer version of the Macromedia Flash Player. Download the free Macromedia Flash Player now!
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
You need to upgrade your Flash Player To view this content, JavaScript must be enabled, and you need a newer version of the Macromedia Flash Player. Download the free Macromedia Flash Player now!
Ave Maria (Bach-Gounod)
You need to upgrade your Flash Player To view this content, JavaScript must be enabled, and you need a newer version of the Macromedia Flash Player. Download the free Macromedia Flash Player now!
Ave Maria (Schubert)
You need to upgrade your Flash Player To view this content, JavaScript must be enabled, and you need a newer version of the Macromedia Flash Player. Download the free Macromedia Flash Player now!
Peace On Earth
You need to upgrade your Flash Player To view this content, JavaScript must be enabled, and you need a newer version of the Macromedia Flash Player. Download the free Macromedia Flash Player now!
Silent Night
You need to upgrade your Flash Player To view this content, JavaScript must be enabled, and you need a newer version of the Macromedia Flash Player. Download the free Macromedia Flash Player now!
O Little Town Of Bethlehem
You need to upgrade your Flash Player To view this content, JavaScript must be enabled, and you need a newer version of the Macromedia Flash Player. Download the free Macromedia Flash Player now!
We Three Kings
You need to upgrade your Flash Player To view this content, JavaScript must be enabled, and you need a newer version of the Macromedia Flash Player. Download the free Macromedia Flash Player now!
Christmas Morning
You need to upgrade your Flash Player To view this content, JavaScript must be enabled, and you need a newer version of the Macromedia Flash Player. Download the free Macromedia Flash Player now!
Silent Night - Reprise
You need to upgrade your Flash Player To view this content, JavaScript must be enabled, and you need a newer version of the Macromedia Flash Player. Download the free Macromedia Flash Player now!
Jingle Cowbells
You need to upgrade your Flash Player To view this content, JavaScript must be enabled, and you need a newer version of the Macromedia Flash Player. Download the free Macromedia Flash Player now!
Auld Lang Syne
You need to upgrade your Flash Player To view this content, JavaScript must be enabled, and you need a newer version of the Macromedia Flash Player. Download the free Macromedia Flash Player now!


After paying securely with PayPal you may begin your downloads. Download links will also be emailed to you. Physical merchandise will be shipped to you. Thank you!
Hark! An Angel Sings
	Eclectic arrangements of Christmas favorites, includes two original Christmas songs - music arranged and composed by Scott R. Munson more
Buy CD - USA (ship inc)

Buy CD - non USA (ship inc)

Click here to listen to Clips

Sheet music and E-books coming soon!

"Natalia is a deeply talented, humble musician."
The Deli magazine

BUY NATALIAS' CD
FROM CDBABY!

ALSO.... Please check out my MP3 page where you can listen to me playing the musical saw. You can also download my music there.
Also please check out my website www.SawLady.com

Get the Flash Player to see this player.