Performing in the subway, students often contact me to interview/film/photograph my experience for a class paper. In NYC it's easy to find subway performers and the subject is too perfect to overlook. I thought you might be interested in reading how I responded to a recent request from a student doing a paper on subway performers: Good Morning, of course I'd love to help out in
Read Moreamazing story while I was performing at Grand Central, Lee arrived, sat down and started to paint..... from my perspective, it was fantastic watching him paint me and watching the people who stopped to see what was going on...a true subway moment, of art and music and people and life!
Read MoreDancing guy: check out: Leadership Lessons from the Dancing Guy by Derek Sivers. In the clip, a guy dances alone to some off camera musicians. Soon after, another dancer joins him. Then a third joins and now it’s more of a thing. Eventually a crowd rushes to be included. What does this say about leadership, or as Derek Sivers blogs about, what he calls the first follower. That second guy is the reason the first guy (with the good idea, or leadership) can continue…. leadership takes risk, so does following a leader. In the beginning you are both out there on a limb on your own. My take, I see this every day I
Read MoreLast year on February 4th, I was performing at the Shuttle in Grand Central. I remember it was really cold. Photographer Jefferson Siegel took some pictures and then came over to ask me a few questions regarding the current financial meltdown and if I felt that people were tipping less. My response was that I didn't notice a difference, but my focus was more on the act of performing in the subway, than the tips in my bag. I asked what paper he was working for. I woke up finding myself on the cover of AMNY, a free paper handed out to commuters throughout the city. The headline was not
Read MoreJan 11, 2009 Grand Central Station Mezzanine Thanks for the love today, I’m full Today was a day no one would have been surprised if I cancelled. The cold air above the platform was sharp, my guitar strings immediately proved what they are made of: steel, cold steel. Somehow like a little match girl fable stroking a match to create warmth and fantasy, everyone that passed me had huge warm smiles, amazing compliments and just a general warm haze o
Read MoreGrand Central Station Graybar corridor 1/08/10 Graybar performing spot is like performing in a perfect performance hall, the sound, the natural reverberation is incredible. As I sing under the amazing granite-limestone? dome, the sound envelops and carries down the corridor towards the main terminal. Over the past years small kiosks have set up throughout the corridor selling all kinds of stuff. I am sensitive not to be too loud for the merchants who, unlike the steady stream of passing commuters, do get to hear my entire 3 hours of performing. Joe, the coffee shop across from me, brings in a steady crowd and the smell of coffee is intoxicating. Today I set up wondering if it would be too cold, it was in the teens outside and the Lexington doors are only about 200’ away from me, but the air didn’t carry anything too icy! I love singing in this spot, it’s effortless, and today
Read MoreFirst blog of 2010. Yesterday was my first Music Under New York performance of 2010. So is it twenty ten? Two thousand and ten? Two thousand ten? I haven’t settled into anything yet, have you? It's been incredibly cold in NYC, and I was worried my gig would be too cold too play, but it wasn’t. I set up in the Long Island Railroad terminal at the far end of the corridor nearer to 8th avenue. It was cozy and warmish, the only thing that seemed to overwhelm me in this location was the incredible smell of grilled steak or was it just the burned oil from a fryer boiling nearby. I immediatel
Read MoreI never thought I'd be a street performer, my goals were always set for big concert halls and intimate high audio quality rooms, but things changed when I moved back to NYC in 1998 (I lived in France for many years), and found the whole club scene lacking. I started performing in the subway, got accepted into the Music Under New York program which gave me a comfort zone in which to schedule my performances. I never knew how it would make me feel, and it took a while to look beyond the notion that somehow performing in the subway meant the end of the line for my career (excuse the pun). Or a place-holder until the next step. This year I decided to try another angle on how to sell my music, and reestablish myself as a songwriter and showcase that I have more to share than just music. Trying to sell myself as Cathy Grier singer songwriter seemed a bit old school. With the internet and
Read MoreArrived at mosaics spot at 3pm I set up, started playing, took me a while to settle in due to the cold. Steel strings on fingers pretty much sap all the warmth out, and the pick doesn’t stay comfortably between my fingers as all moisture is gone. I love the beauty of the mosaics, there are 2 walls of them. Today I set up with the marketplace scene behind me. I looked across at the wall with the film location scene. The surreal colors constant
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Cathy Grier, LEFT on RED's Liah Alonzo & Kelly Halloran and Heidi Kole
