Abigail Washburn

Abigail Washburn

Abigail Washburn (born November 10, 1979 in Evanston, Illinois) is an American clawhammer banjo player and singer. She performs and records as a soloist, as well as with the old-time bands Uncle Earl and Sparrow Quartet.

Washburn was born in suburban Chicago, but spent her elementary and part of her junior high school years in a suburb of Washington, D.C.. She attended high school in Minnesota, then attended Colorado College, where she was the school's first East Asian studies major. Following this, she spent some time living in China. She then spent three years in Vermont before moving to Nashville, Tennessee.

In Tennessee, she met KC Groves, one of the founding members of the band Uncle Earl. She entered a songwriting contest at MerleFest (a bluegrass festival in North Carolina) with her song Rockabye Dixie and won second place, and the attention of the Nettwerk recording label. Her first solo album, entitled Song of the Traveling Daughter, was produced thereafter by Béla Fleck, and includes the playing of Ben Sollee, a Louisville cellist, and Jordan McConnell, the guitarist for the Canadian traditional/soul fusion band The Duhks. Washburn speaks Mandarin, and the recording includes two songs in that language.

Washburn returned to China in 2005 with a group called the Sparrow Quartet, composed of Sollee, Fleck and Grammy-nominated fiddler Casey Driessen, with whom she has recorded an EP.

According to an interview on Woodsongs Old-Time Radio Hour, Washburn decided to learn to play the banjo after hearing a recording of Doc Watson singing and playing clawhammer style banjo on the traditional "Shady Grove". She also credits her experience in China, and the way in which the Chinese were delving into their own culture as inspiring her to explore her own cultural roots.

Discography

• Song of the Travelling Daughter/Here in this Room EP (2004)
• Song of the Travelling Daughter (2005)
• The Sparrow Quartet EP (2006)
• Abigail Washburn & The Sparrow Quartet (2008)

with Uncle Earl

• She Waits for Night (2005)
• Waterloo, Tennessee (2007)

External links

• Abigail Washburn official site
• Article on Abigail Washburn's close relationship with China
• Bluegrass Over Beijing, by Ron Gluckman
• Abigail Washburn interview from Popmatters
• Official Myspace
• Official Facebook Page

Listening

• Abigail Washburn at NPR Music
• Audio interview from National Public Radio Morning Edition program
• Audio samples from Song of the Traveling Daughter