MUSC105: Assignment Three Anton Styles [Redacted] On the Friday night of 10 May 2013, the band

Johanna and the Mystery

was scheduled to play at the Southern Cross Hotel in central Wellington, from 10pm to midnight. I had planned to attend and conduct an ethnography, and on the way there I encountered a trio of buskers. One was playing a banjo, one a violin, and one a harmonica. The sound produ ced as these diverse ins truments converged was highly idiosyncratic, and I quickly decided to make this performance the subject of my study. The resulting experience blurred the lines between objectivity and subjectivity, as the following ethnographical account reflects. Two thirds of the way up Cuba Street, which is a common area for Wellingtonian street-performers, I find a group of musicians. The banjo has one missing string - the high top string which characterizes the normal banjo sound - and the banjoist has replaced two strings with thicker-gauge strings, tuned at bass level. The banjoist is mid-twenties, dressed in alternative hippie attire, with long hear and an equally long, bushy beard. He is playing a rhythm that at first seems to mix between country and jazz, but proves so foreig n that I cannot catego rize it. The violinist is mid- thirties, and wears Kathmandu jacket. He is watching the banjo player, cautiously following his lead with high-pitch melodies. The harmonica player is younger, about 19, wearing jeans and a hoodie. He seems slightly bewildered, and joins in here and there with some blues lines over the top, pausing now and again with a bemused smile. As he plays, I recognize the tune of “ Train T ime,” by

Cream