I have been singing and playing the guitar pretty much all my life. I got my first guitar in about 1957 at a time in England when rock ‘n’ roll and skiffle music were creating a new musical sound which struck a chord with me. Together with the blues and country and western they have shaped my musical interests ever since.
If I hd a stage name I guess it would be DD Sing since I sing everything in Open-D or Dropped-D tuning. As it is I’m just Dave from Durham and my live performances are confined to the streets of Durham.
I enjoy singing and enjoy performing in public. The songs that I sing are rooted in my own personal experience and in many ways they are simply an exercise in nostalgia. I recreate my past. As a busker my relationship with the public is hard to define but I like it that way. You are a free agent. You sing what you like. You can practice new stuff without embarrassment. No one applauds. Some do stand and listen and a few do give you money. I enjoy the reaction of some of the younger children who pass by. Less self-conscious than their parents, they often like to dance to the music. I am also amused by the reaction of some of the dogs who pass me by and whose auditory mechanisms seem to find it hard to process the sound.
I normally sing for about two hours and get through about thirty songs, trying not to repeat myself. I derive a lot of satisfaction from singing a song well and this does not entirely depend on audience reaction since most people are simply passing by. So my songs are essentially sung to me, although, like messages in a bottle, they may get picked up by others. “Sing as though no one can hear you” is a Gaelic saying which sums up my busking philosophy and is something that I inherited from my mother, who was born in Ireland.
