Vox Humana

When I got to the Union Square subway station today I had a few minutes to wait before taking over the busking spot from musicians Zack (banjo) and Scott (violin) (who btw will be playing with me on January 23rd at the http://www.spikehillmusic.com/event/198839/?utm_source=fb1 ).
I set on the bench next to a homeless man named Marcus. He told me that he researched me on line, and indeed he knew my car accident story. He proceeded to tell me how his wife (who was his girlfriend since he was 15. He is 52 now) died when a drunk truck driver hit her 3 years ago. Marcus wanted to kill himself after that and planned to jump in front of a subway train. On his way to it, he heard a banjo player at the Union Square subway station (at the Music Under New York busking spot). Marcus ended up not killing himself. He said that musician saved his life. Since then he has been coming to this spot (where he heard the banjo player) often, to support buskers, which is how he came to know me.
Can there be any better validation for having buskers in this world?!

Please turn off the player on the right hand column before watching this video:

I love hearing people’s associations to the sound of the musical saw. A lady at the Union Square subway station, where I was playing, said that it is like “Vox Humana”.
That sent me to Wikipedia to find out what she meant…:
“The Vox Humana is a short-resonator reed stop on the pipe organ, so named because of its supposed resemblance to the human voice. As a rule, the stop is used with a tremulant, which undulates the wind supply, causing a vibrato effect. The vox humana is intended to evoke the impression of a singing choir or soloist”.