ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, August 6, 1996 TAG: 9608060039
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: BETH MACY
SOURCE: BETH MACY
Street musicians hustle for quarters in New York City.
In San Francisco and Chicago, they're a bona fide tourist attraction.
In Big Lick, it's Roy McGhee's presence on the Roanoke City Market that lends a certain big-city air.
There is something almost cosmopolitan about a Saturday morning stroll on the market. Used grocery bags full of fresh produce dangle from both elbows, the smell of just-baked bagels is in the air.
Meanwhile, across the street, on a city bench lodged between Ernie's grill and Good Things on the Market sweets shop, Roy McGhee sways back and forth, pounding his black high-top Nikes on the pavement.
Sometimes, a church hymn blows from his harmonica.
Sometimes, an old folk tune bangs out of his guitar.
Sometimes, Roy puts both down and belts one out, a capella, in his best blues voice.
Occasionally, if you're within a few feet of him - and all the cosmic forces are in alignment - you can even make out the tune.
Roy McGhee has never claimed to be a musician.
Nary a scheduled gig has he performed. Nary a lesson has crossed his path.
Three years ago, for some reason - not even Roy knows for sure why - he rode the bus from his Lincoln Terrace apartment to downtown Roanoke, where he purchased a guitar and an Echo harmonica from Southern Pawn Shop. Then he systematically set out to become part of the Roanoke City Market soundtrack.
``I taught myself to play the first day I came down here,'' the 67-year-old says. ``I just started, `Looo looo ...''' He demonstrates his high-pitched croon.
His first week on the harp, ``I said, `Oh Lord, I'm going to die with this thing taking my breath,''' Roy recalls, rearing his head back in laughter.
Nearly every day since then, from midmorning till late afternoon, he's sat there in his three-piece suit, pounding out tunes.
And nearly every work day since, Shonna Williams and her mother, Rita, have listened. They have no choice.
``His tune is basically inhale, exhale,'' Shonna explains from her nearby post at Good Things, where Roy takes regular ice cream breaks (chocolate and vanilla, the swirly kind).
``There are days when we hear `whee whir' all day long,'' adds Rita Williams, owner of the store.
The Williams women aren't criticizing Roy's lack of, shall we say, repertoire. He's improved some, they offer. After all, he practices every day.
And they do admire his entrepreneurial flair. It's a fact that locals and tourists alike regularly patronize his Styrofoam cup, which he keeps lodged between his knees.
``If business is slow here, he'll move around the corner,'' Shonna says. ``He has a knack for finding the crowds.''
With the addition of a new hand-held microphone he found recently at Happy's Flea Market, ``he's made a big change in his musical career,'' she adds. ``He's been able to reach a much wider audience.'' Calling himself ``the Rev. Roy McGhee,'' Roy says he's saving up his coins to start his own church. ``What I'm doing here is I'm praising the Lord.''
Disabled for 23 years, Roy points to the scar that snakes around the side of his shaved head. He served in the Korean War, he explains in a muffled voice, his words slightly scrambled.
He says he has 14 children, by 14 different women. He says he has money in a bank account that the bank refuses to let him have.
He enjoys all the people on the market. They treat him nicely, he says.
But sometimes armed men stand on the roofs of surrounding buildings and try to get him, he explains. He says things like that one minute, and makes perfect sense the next.
You walk away wondering about this addition to the market's cast of characters.
But when you look back, you see people approaching him, stopping, listening, rustling around in their pockets for change.
Coins begin to clink in his cup. The foot-pounding gears up again, followed by the inhale-exhale tune of the harp and, finally, that voice:
Oh, Lord, lay his hands on me ...
And you know, he already has.
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Eric Brady. You'll find Roy McGhee seated where theby CNBcrowds are on the Roanoke City Market, blowing on his mouth harp or
strumming his guitar and crooning, a tin can or a cup for coins on
his lap. color.