My family and the other families who lived in those alley homes harmonized without any instruments to accompany them. There were musicians in the neighborhood, fellows who played the banjo, mandolin, guitar, and the bells (sometimes one man would play all of them). But they played at parties and sometimes on street corners... Then, of course, there was the hurdy-gurdy man. We kids would dance to the music he made and sing the words of the songs that came out of his tired, battered street organ.