While New Orleans’ street music scene has changed quite a bit in the decade since Washboard Chaz and bassist Robert Snow struck up the Palmetto Bug Stompers’ first jig, there is one thing in particular that both veteran purveyors attest hasn’t: “New Orleans is one of the only cities, really, where guys like us can make a living playing music,” Snow muses in this weeks episode of OffBeat’s Look Ka-Py Py Podcast.

“It’s funny because we’re making more now [on Frenchmen Street] than we did [before Hurricane Katrina], but we’re not seeing our friends as much,” replies Bywater/Marigny neighborhood favorite Chaz. “They’re spreading out through Saint Claude, which is interesting because you [the musicians] aren’t making any money there. But when we first started out, we weren’t making any money on Frenchmen.”

Though the pair no longer busks in the street to get by, they see the influx of musicians, tourists and the proliferation of the scene as more of an organic extension of the musical landscape than a byproduct of gentrification. And while issues such as ABO licensing, neighborhood noise ordinances and regulating standard wages for musicians have become hot-button, political items these days, neither enter either’s purview: “[The night that] I make my most money is Friday night [at the] Spotted Cat — 20 percent of the door, 20 percent of the till,” says Chaz.

“I was just recently up there [in New York City], and it’s $15 for a mix drink. And they’re charging you $10-$15-$20 to get in,” says Snow.

“Nobody makes a living there unless you’re really in the upper level,” Chaz maintains. “I’m not really crazy about having to pass a tip jar, but that’s part of the deal.”

 
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