Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin had a fictional U.S. poet laureate deliver these thoughts about artistry and audience on “The West Wing.” “An artist’s job is to captivate you for however long we’ve asked for your attention.”

The simplest, purest form of independent musicianship – the busker – may not ask directly, but deep down they know their livelihood requires that ability to captivate.

And if they can separate you willingly from a little of your hard-earned cash, all the better.

The spirit of the street musician – the nods to history, the necessity of hard work, the thinking on your feet, the improvisation based on your audience, the sheer hustle of it all – captivated Cary Baker from a very young age.

The Chicago-born Baker terms himself these days as “writer-turned-music biz pro-turned-writer,” having recently stepped back from day-to-day work in the industry. Baker spent more than four decades telling artists’ stories via publicity work for six different labels and two companies of his own, shepherding artists such as R.E.M., Bonnie Raitt, The Mavericks, James McMurtry, The Smithereens and many more.

Baker has long been a champion of independent artists, including many directly in the wheelhouse of the ever-shifting genre known as Americana, which will be celebrated next week in Nashville during the 24th annual Americana Music Association’s AmericanaFest, as well as its flagship event, The Americana Honors & Awards Wednesday at the Ryman Auditorium.

The AMA gathering will serve as a de facto launching point for Baker’s new book, “Down on the Corner: Adventures in Busking and Street Music,” which will be released Nov. 12. In it, Baker takes a look at the history of the art form, breaking down its influence via both geographical and generational means, showing how artistry can develop beyond having to draw audiences in one member at a time, but still reveling in the unique beauty of each one-to-one connection.

What drew you into the idea of unpacking this history of busking?

“This book comes from a very deep place in my heart.

“I was born on Chicago’s South Side and raised in the Chicago suburbs. One day, around 1971-72, my father told me he wanted to take me to Maxwell Street, the decrepit Chicago district at which his parents – Jewish European immigrants – bought, sold, traded and kibitzed. That was the 1940s.

“By the later ’40s, ’50s, ’60s and now ’70s, the neighborhood had become predominantly Black, and was now a hotbed for street musicians including Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry before their respective stardoms.

Cortelia Clark performing outside the Pancake Pantry circa 1967. Baker’s book “Down On The Corner” takes a look at busking and street music culture from all over the world, including Nashville.

-- Courtesy Sony Music Archives

“We’d barely parked our car across Roosevelt Road at the UIC (University of Illinois-Chicago) campus when I heard the strains of slide guitar wafting across Roosevelt Road. We followed the music, and there was a street singer – an older Texas-born Black man named Blind Arvella Gray.

“We stood there and listened for nearly an hour. I introduced myself, got his phone number and ended up writing an on-spec interview feature on him for the then-brand-new Chicago Reader. They published the piece.

“My career as a freelance writer (I was 15 years old) had begun, and I hope I helped Arvella Gray’s career. I ended up coproducing (and later reissuing) his one LP.”

Is busking the ultimate form of independent music?

“Busking is definitely the ultimate expression of independent music. Doesn’t get more indie than cutting out the manager, the booking agent, the venue talent buyer, the record company and the advance ticket sales. Show up if you care to. Don’t if you don’t.

“Of course, if you give up a good location, competing buskers may move in. More cities are coming around to the benefits of welcoming buskers.

“I have a chapter in the book about New Orleans’ history of busking ordinances, as well as New York’s Washington Square and L.A.’s Venice Boardwalk.

“Punk-folk” trio Violent Femmes got its start busking on the streets of Milwaukee in the early ‘80s

-- Photo By Karen Keene From “Down On The Corner”

“Singer-songwriter Eilen Jewell, a former busker, said she feels that cities benefit from devoting what she calls ‘wild space’ to musicians and other performers.”

Ketch Secor from Old Crow Medicine Show has a great anecdote about busking in Canada, that their two-dollar coins (or toonies) are a busker’s godsend. What were your favorite tips or tricks that came out of your research?

“I especially like this advice from Prof. Adam Gussow of Satan & Adam and nowadays a prof at Ole Miss (He’s on my AmericanaFest panel by the way.):

“‘If you want to busk, there are three key things you have to pay attention to,’ he says. ‘You have to pay attention to the weather, because if it’s raining, you get in trouble. I have a story or two about that. Especially if you’ve got electric amps, right?

‘You have to pay attention to foot traffic. In other words, what you need is a place that has enough people coming by you that you can make some tips. So the weather, foot traffic and the police. And all three things were working in our favor on 125th Street. We have to be careful because we played in all seasons. We’d play after it snowed sometimes; I mean, we were crazy that way.

‘But obviously there’s certain months that are better for it and rainy days are not good for that; we obviously would never play. The foot traffic 125th Street in the middle of Harlem – you couldn’t do better.

‘It was incredible there; everybody went by there, including some famous people. The Apollo Theater was a block away.

"And the police didn’t give a damn about us because they had so many other things on their minds. The cops never said, ‘Turn it down.’”

What’s been your experience with AmericanaFest over the years?

“I love AmericanaFest! I was going to attend the first year but 9/11 happened and I wasn’t able to attend the rescheduled event. So I’ve attended every year since then, 2002-2024 – 22 to be exact, as there was no 2020 festival due to COVID, and I erred on the side of caution and skipped 2021.

“I love the music focus – not the case at (Austin’s South By Southwest), of which I attended 30 consecutive years (1988-2017). That got too big and diffuse with its emphasis on tech and branding.

“AmericanaFest is 100% music. I love seeing my friends. I still love Nashville despite its growth downtown and elsewhere and the increasing price of lodging and parking. Still, I look forward to AmFest 2024 and moderating my busking panel.

“Even though it’s the afternoon of the Awards, I grant everyone permission to show up at the Awards in a T-shirt and jeans (or maybe a Hawaiian shirt and cutoffs in memory of Mojo Nixon), and grab a hot dog at the Ryman concession stand. This panel is gonna rock!

“I am technically a retiree these days, and no one is paying my airfare and lodging. Plus I’m getting a tad old for 12 hours of nonstop music and schmingling.

“So I may not be able to continue ad infinitum. So I am granting myself permission not to attend every future AmericanaFest, or to take a year off here or there.

"But if I call it a wrap at some point, it will be with the utmost love and respect for Jed Hilly, Danna Strong and the and for the Americana genre. Some of the most unforgettable times of my life have been in Nashville in September.”

What’s your perspective on Americana as a genre, since you’re outside Nashville?

“From 1979-81, I worked for a label based in Chicago (where I was based) with a Music Row A&R office. The big act was The Kendalls. But there was also a renegade singer-songwriter named Joe Sun, who has sadly since passed on. (Very sad as I was going to try to reintroduce him in the Americana era).

“Anyway, I was at a Joe Sun gig in Chicago with some co-workers and I mentioned to one of them, in 1981: “This is sort of like alternative country.” The co-worker chortled and told my other co-workers: “Get a load of this…do you know what Cary just said? Alternative country! Hahahahaha!” Well, I was right.

“Along came No Depression and then AmericanaFest. To me, Americana is all-inclusive. A clubhouse for artists who don’t fit anywhere else. And artists too old to fare on Music Row or Coachella.

“It’s not just Jason Isbell nor Sierra Farrell, God bless them both. It’s Swamp Dogg, Steve Cropper, Wilco, The dB’s, Bonnie Raitt, Cedric Burnside, Mavis Staples, T Bone Burnett, the Baseball Project. I love that Hermanos Gutierrez is Americana.

“It needn’t necessarily twang on my account, as much as I do love traditional and Outlaw country.”