When the gigs dried up, Old Man Luedecke took to the sea

When the music gigs dried up this year, there was just one thing for Nova Scotia musician Old Man Luedecketo do leave the land behind and become a scallop farmer.

This summer the singer-songwriter, also known as Chris Luedecke,landed a job as a deckhand at a scallop farmrun by his neighbour in Chester.

It's a career he'd long been taken withand as he watched COVID-19 wipe out his livelihood as a performance artist, it felt like the perfect time to give it a try.

"I had gone to get some scallops from a neighbour, who lives across the road ...and when I picked them up, he said, 'Well, would you like a job?' And I thought well sure," Luedecke told CBC's Information Morningrecently.

"I've just been learning an incredible amountand doing a whole bunch of brand new things that I never would have thought possible, in the most romantic environment."

Early morningson the water sound romantic, sure, but the work itself isn't all that appealing, he admits.

Instead ofdragging for scallops at sea, Luedecke works on an aquaculture farm, which means he helps toharvest scallopsfromnets that hang in the water.

Dressed in a rubber suit, it's his job to make sure small and slimy invertebrate animals calledtunicates don't mess with the goods.

"You could never imagine how disgusting these things are they grow on the nets and so they need to be either shaken off or lately we've been doing some pressure washing," he said.

"It's pretty full on. You're sort of standing around in a bucket of guts, really. There's literally crap flying everywhere."

The title track ofLuedecke's most recent album Easy Money is about dreaming of a way to make money without having to leavetheones you love behind.

COVID-19 has ended touring for now, but harvesting scallops isn't exactly easy money, althoughit's close to home and the hours are good.

He's usuallydone work by 2 p.m., just in time for his kids to return home from school.

Luedecke says he'll likely continue working at the scallop farm into the new year. He'shappy to have a stable source of income even as he's managed to book a handful of concerts recently in Dartmouth and on Prince Edward Island.

Next month he'llbe performing at Celtic Colours in Cape Breton.

It's nowhere near his usualslate of performances but he's glad to be back infront of an audience, banjo in hand.

"Just all of the little thrills of the traveling life you know, I'm a little bit built that way and to have them all come flooding back is pretty special," he said.