Maryanne Epp on performing, and living, on the street

If you ride the subway in Toronto, you might recognize Maryanne Epp's voice.

Epp has been singing and writing songs since she was four and, for years, has been making a living by busking around Toronto and on the TTC. 

The better I get the meaner the kids get.— Busker Maryanne Epp

She told Metro Morning host Matt Galloway on Friday she got her start thanks to some powerful encouragement when she was a little girl. 

"My mother was threatened by this little nun that if I didn't get singing lessons ... that she'd go to hell," Epp recalled. "So she abided." 

"I haven't looked back." 

Metro Morning8:23When a TTC busker can't afford a gift, she gives a song instead

Maryanne Epp was once homeless but now earns her living by busking. Her incredible story is featured in the film Lowdown Tracks, at the Regent Park Film Festival this weekend. She brought her guitar to Metro Morning to play a brand new song.

After years of being homeless she recently managed to cobble enough together for rent and appears in a new documentary about musicians who make their living, and often live, on the streets. 

"It's getting harder," to get by with busking, Epp said. "The better I get the meaner the kids get — they steal attention, they make noise and I don't make money." 

"Sometimes it's like hanging on to one blade of grass, hoping you don't fall off the earth."

Epp performed a song she wrote just last week for her fiancé's birthday. 

"I didn't have anything else to give him," she said. 

The movie, Lowdown Tracks by director Shelley Saywell, will be screened this weekend at the Regent Park Film Festival.