Every so often, a downtown busking group really sink their teeth into what they’re playing and give a truly memorable performance. And that’s exactly what happened here, when Asheville-based singer/songwriter Taylor Martin and fiddle-player Lyndsay Pruitt performed Martin’s original tune “Devil’s in the Barroom” on Pack Square on Friday evening.

Having a bit of a low Sunday? If so, here’s a tune just for you. It’s “Lonely Sunday”, written by local singer/songwriter Nathan Taylor and performed with fiddler Darin Gentry on Pack Square last week.

Local singer/songwriter PJ Bond and Sirius.B’s musical saw player Lauren Baker performed this tune in front of Kim’s Wigs in the Miles Building in downtown Asheville to a small, enthralled crowd on Friday night.

Last week, the Xpressstaff was all in a tizzy thanks to a performance by Lyric (aka Leeda September Jones), but weren’t quite able to get a recording of the young songwriter and her band. Luckily for the rest of us, Lyric is no stranger to the downtown busking scene. Here she is performing her song “Blue Skies” on Pack Square.

Listening to how neatly the members of The Leather Britches fit together as performers, you’d be hard-pressed to guess that the group had only been playing together under that name for the better part of an afternoon. Composed of four friends who came to Asheville for the Swannanoa Gathering, the group is: Nick DiSebastian (guitar) and Charles Muench (bass) — both of the band River Wheel — Bronwyn Keith-Hynes (fiddle) and Jen Starsinic (fiddle). Here, the quartet perform the cross-genre standard “Make Me a Pallet on the Floor.”

While Billy Joe Shaver has been influencing outlaw country music for nearly four decades, many younger listeners became introduced to his music when his tune “Warrior Man” was used as the theme to the Adult Swim cartoon Squidbillies. How influential was that theme song? Just ask buskers Obie Quiet, Ignorant and Captain Ahab, who performed their cover of the tune near Pritchard Park earlier this week. If you like what you hear, be forewarned that the trio lack any kind of Web presence, so your best bet to hear them live is to wander aimlessly on the streets of Asheville. Just a word of warning, though: The song is just a touch not safe for work.

As anyone who has made themselves open to the free-flowing social scene of Asheville knows, it can be surprisingly easy to meet people of similar interests just by being open to chance encounters. And those meetings—even if fleeting—can create some very interesting (if perhaps short-lived) artistic collaborations. For instance, violinist Jeffrey Hershey and singer/songwriter Michael Jordan encountered each other outside of Mo Daddy’s one night last week, and the next day they were jamming in Pritchard Park. The tune is called “This Is What You Get.”

Not every downtown busker is seeking popularity and fame. Some just love performing, and aren’t particularly seeking to promote themselves. Take the Asheville-based blues busker known only as Ben. He wasn’t interested in giving out his last name, doesn’t have a website or social media page for his music, and insists that the only way to hear more of his playing is to randomly encounter him performing for kicks and tips on the street. In this clip, he’s covering the classic Jimmy Reed tune “High And Lonesome.”

Although he’s just passing through town, Savannah, GA,-based busker Echo Bohymn was more than happy to play a pick-up set of novelty jazz tunes on a bright and sunny Friday afternoon. Odds are that he’s already moved on from Asheville—he claims he was just passing through—and he proudly claims to have no website or online presence. Luckily, Xpress caught part of his set for all those who didn’t happen to be within earshot of his busking spot in Pritchard Park. In this clip, he’s playing his take on the classic Spencer Williams-composed jazz standard “Everybody Loves My Baby.”