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After a restless night of protest, downtown Spokane resonated with street music of all sorts with the purpose of feeding the hungry.
“People are expressing their views, and the musicians are out here expressing their views,” said Carey Eyer, the organizer of the Spokane Street Music Week. “But the real benefit is that we’re helping the food bank.”
The 23rd annual Street Music Week in Spokane runs through Friday, with street musicians taking to downtown, the Garland District, South Perry and downtown Coeur d’Alene from noon to 1 p.m. Each musician is given a bucket to collect donations that are then given to Second Harvest to source food for Spokane’s food bank.
Kathy Hedgcock, a senior leader at Second Harvest, said that each dollar donated roughly equals about three meals provided to the food bank. Eyer said that last year through various sponsors and donations, street music week gathered around $27,000, or more than 80,000 meals.
“Music, like food, is something that really connects us all,” Hedgcock said. “We enjoy music, and that makes us thrive. We enjoy a meal that makes us thrive. So I think it is really relative that way.”
A wide variety of instruments sang on the streets, such as bagpipes, 12-string guitars, accordions and makeshift percussion. The performers were just as diverse, with older folks singing songs from the ’60s and ’70s, to Eyer’s daughters, 14 and 16, harmonizing over tunes that mattered to them.
Neilia Eyer, the older of the two, and Ivy Eyer both started playing instruments and singing when they were 4 . Carey Eyer, a musician himself, said he used to carry around a ukulele in a diaper bag to sing the kids songs with parental messages.
“The ukulele is an incredible parenting tool,” Carey Eyer said. “I could sing them songs about scrubbing your elbows in the bathtub or whatever. My kids always responded to music.”
Now, his daughters have developed a passion for music.
“My favorite part about music is the connections that you get,” said Ivy Eyer, who plays the accordion. “We get to play with people and participate in jams. It’s always just so fun to be connected with other people.”
Neilia Eyer, who plays the piano, said she enjoys the way music allows her to express herself. One song the sister duo called the “Great White Shark Rebuttal,” by local musician Mat Mitchell, let Neilia Eyer sing about the issue of climate change.
“It just kind of lightens the mood on a dark topic, which I think is really cool about music,” she said.
Melissa Mitchell was one of many walking downtown Spokane and listening to the street music. Mitchell said she enjoyed the event and its cause, and will return for the last day, Friday.
“The weather is perfect, so being able to walk around and get a coffee and listen to great music of such an eclectic variety, I appreciate that a lot,” Mitchell said.
Dennis Glidden, another musician, said he’s played at the event for the last 10 or 12 years. Glidden brought his 12-string guitar and drum machine to perform songs like “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” by Gordon Lightfoot, and a gospel-rock song of his own creation.
“Music is my life,” Glidden said. “I mean, I’m not a professional or anything. I just like to play music.”
Carey Eyer said he became involved with the event when a former coordinator saw him playing his ukulele at a preschool for the kids. He said he was surprised when the coordinator asked him to come play, as he didn’t see his performance as anything impressive.
“It’s not about virtuosity. It’s about generosity,” the former coordinator said to him.
After that, Carey Eyer performed and said he found a passion for the event’s cause.
“The appeal of the event is it makes that service component fun and easy,” he said. “You should see the smile on the people’s faces when they come and they take a bucket and they’re psyched to go and play for the food bank.”
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