La Vida de Vagabundos Americanos
I have a bit of an obsession with The Dead Man Street Orchestra - a close group of hobos / musical gypsy’s who catch rides on freight trains across the country and play their hearts out on the streets for fun. If you’re living in the warm South this winter you might be lucky enough to stumble on them.
I don’t think I could just go travelling with these guys for a few months and ever be the same again. The photos promise that.
This lifestyle is contagious - check out this amazing gallery I found of other kids travelling by train. When I first came across these pics I thought they were the Deadman Street Orchestra but an anonymous commenter helped me out.
Musical influences:
“Beans, Rum, home made instruments, trash percussion, gypsy fiddle, sing a longs, old folks, trampin folks, young folks, workin folks, bums who ride for free, free time, free music, free morning coffee, rollin cigerettes, tuning A quarter 1/2 step sharp, loveable black and red dogs, back porches, sushi, and beans, a cold beer in a hot boxcar, and a tune ya just wanta play all day…”
The entire Dead Man Street Orchestra album is available in mp3’s and won’t cost you a single bean of course! Recorded in the woods at Mutant Fest this year.
see also an older post about:
The Dead Man’s Street Orchestra
and another gallery post about them I cant find right now but plan to put here later. (Let me know if you know where it is!!)
December 18th, 2007 at 11:27am
I like their music. The life would never do for me. I couldn’t stand being that dirty.
December 18th, 2007 at 10:53pm
hah! yeah, that would be great… unnnnnntil 40 :) .. but still
December 20th, 2007 at 7:47pm
yeah O i don’t know if you could take nathan unshowered for a long period of time. are you sure this is what you want? or isn’t he invited…
December 21st, 2007 at 1:02pm
Interesting that you’re assuming I’m going to do this, but I’d be lying if I told you I havent seriously imagined joining them for a while… though I’d never do it without him. I wouldn’t want to, and after enough time hanging around a bunch of smelly people including myself I’d welcome his comforting scents and smells. Mine own portable air “conditioner”. Home for me is anywhere I lay my bag down for the night, and it smells like me and him intermingled. Id rather have that than a Yankee Candle :@)
December 26th, 2007 at 7:06pm
nathan is a yankee and you are a candle, so um…yeah.
i ran out of things to say. or maybe i didn’t have anything to say, but i felt like typing. one or two. ask the dog for a bone.
December 28th, 2007 at 10:00pm
I like reading people’s comments on that gallery site. A lot of people just can’t imagine a lifestyle outside of the norm, even though so many people are unhappy with the consumerist life that so many of us lead. I also agree that I wouldn’t be particularly comfortable living in such filth, and although a lifestyle with a similar approach or perhaps philosophy definitely appeals to me, it’s not one of being a bum and scavenging the land as much as it would be one where I was simply living off of the land itself, and not by taking advantage of others or stealing from them.
To live outside of society is an admirable thing in my book, but to steal from the society you’re rebelling against is a bit of an hypocrisy in my mind. Once you’re just stealing from a society, or even bumming money from people who live within that society, you’re just another part of it.
Not saying anything particularly bad or good about these guys, whatever works for them is cool with me and they do look like they enjoy themselves at times (if much less than often than them looking depressed) and certainly look cool…
March 11th, 2008 at 4:46pm
This is great and all, but the pictures of those good looking people are not even in the dead man street orchestra. if you want to put up some photos of the real folks look at their webpage
myspace.com/streetorchestra
March 11th, 2008 at 9:48pm
Haha that’s hilarious! I stumbled on that gallery while looking for new pics of the Deadman crew after having no luck on their myspace page. The similarity was so strong I didn’t for a second suspect it wasn’t them.
Thanks for the help on that dear anonymous reader… and note the post has been edited to be accurate.