Profile with Abigail Washburn

Abigail Washburn and the Song of the Traveling Daughter
Banjo Newsletter November, 2005

2005 may be the “Year of the Clawhammer Banjo,” thanks to Abigail Washburn’s emergence on the national scene. With open-backs representing the fastest growing segment of banjo sales, the timing of Abigail’s surfacing could not be more apropos. Abigail’s new album, Song of the Traveling Daughter, is an extraordinary debut effort and offers a new theater for the definition of old-time and its ever-expanding boundaries.

The album heavily features Abigail’s banjo playing, yet it immediately brings to mind the new trend of cabaret-style singers like Coralie Clemente and Norah Jones. But Song of the Traveling Daughter firmly stands on its own as a separate and unique sound. It is one of those rare albums that can extend offerings to fans of other music styles a door into string band music, while rarely straying from its old-time roots. Moreover, the album offers the listener new insights on every listen, new depths in each song, new facets of her contemplative banjo lines, and new sides of Abigail’s singing. While Nettwerk’s promotional material for this record describes it as “old-fashioned,” it could not be more contemporary, current, and unique. I found this album profound and moving, while remaining accessible despite the
occasional Chinese fiddle quotes by Casey Driessen and Chinese lyrics penned by Abigail on two tracks. The opening track, “Sometimes” begins with Abigail playing banjo, yet builds into a moving climax with the addition of guitar, fiddle, and finally cello. Béla Fleck plays on two tracks, offering a thumping National steel guitar on “Coffee’s Cold,” and then a sparse and dark harmonic context for the song “Momma.” The listener takes a journey through the 14 tracks, from Appalachia to Nashville to China and
along Abigail’s personal explorations. Abigail began playing banjo while in college in Colorado. Abigail states, “After my first bluegrass festival I went home and put on an LP of Doc Watson singing Shady Grove and playing clawhammer banjo. I was amazed and
thought to myself, ‘I’ve got to be able to do that!’” As she learned about clawhammer banjo and the old-time music scene, she came to realize it embodied many of the things she loved about music. “I just couldn’t get too excited about learning how to take solos in the bluegrass scene and be spotlighted in that way. I like the idea of this communal music, the
groove, and the vibe that gets created.” In 2002, Abigail was living in Vermont and working as a lobbyist when her good friends, the Cleary
Brothers old-time string band, lost their banjo
player after setting up a tour of Alaska. She got
a crash course in banjo and joined the band for
their tour. Abigail sang lead and harmony, played the banjo, and discovered a love for live performance. Abigail comments, “banjo ended up being a great muse for my music and a wonderful way for me to be able to son-write.” Abigail’s banjo style is more focused on Roundpeak style, being as Riley Baugus
mentored her. She says, “It is a bit more of a precision sound and little bit more African - more slides, syncopated rhythms, and groovy. Additionally there is what comes out when I am writing a song, which is neither here nor there. It is whatever feels right on the banjo. Usually it has a lot of drones and pretty chords, with words floating over it.”

Abigail’s path to studying Chinese began about 8 years ago in college. Abigail says, “It taught me so much about life, and felt really vital, and I love communication.” She lived in China three different times for six months each and last fall returned there on musical tour, which was featured on BBC’s The World. She began writing songs in Chinese one summer while intensively studying Chinese in Middlebury, Vermont. She started by translating a Gillian Welch song. There was a local talent show at
the school where she performed “Winter’s Come and Gone” in Chinese and played the banjo. “It sounded great, and it worked,” Abigail recalls. She decided she should try to write some songs in Chinese if lyrics came to her. She was at a level in studying the language that she knew something about Chinese poetics and could actually write some verses if she felt she had something meaningful to say. About two years later when Abigail moved to Nashville, she met a poet from Beijing named Jing Li. “I met with her to do some translation of a work-related document, and asked her, ‘Are you into poetics? What do you think of this line?’” Abigail had started writing a song about woman empowerment called “Song of the Traveling Daughter.” Jing Li read it and loved it, and eventually the two got together to write songs. Abigail later would put them to music and ultimately recorded some of them. Abigail states that lyrics come to her in Chinese as well as English, and Jing Li helped correct the grammar. The poem eventually turned into the title track of her album. “Song of the Traveling Daughter” is a powerful and driving old-time sounding song, with lyrics in Mandarin Chinese.
A remarkable and stunning fusion of East and West.

At the Folk Alliance, Abigail met KC Groves, the Colorado-based multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, and she joined the all-female super- group Uncle Earl. This past summer Rounder released Uncle Earl’s She Waits for Night to critical acclaim. The album features all the members singing, a step-dancing tune, beautiful instrumentals, and a striking array of material, including phenomenal fiddling by Rayna Gellert (daughter of banjoist Dan Gellert). While Abigail’s solo career is taking on a life of its own, she remains committed to Uncle Earl. She says,
“We love each other and don’t want to stop playing. The whole concept of the all women band rockin’ out on old-time music is irresistible to me.” Uncle Earl just completed a busy summer, including venues such as MerleFest, Telluride Bluegrass Festival and Grey Fox, and a showcase at IBMA.

“I never thought I’d be a musician,” Abigail says. “ I used to think it’d be fun to tour around in a band, but I never thought of it as something that could be a reality. It’s hard, you have to give up a lot, it’s scary, you‘re poor, and it’s a major commitment.” She added, “Nashville teaches you something that I think is really important. Whatever it is you have to offer,
whatever you are genuinely special at, you just have to do it. You have to believe in it. I have had the luck that it has brought opportunity; but regardless of your level of success, it is just what you have to do. Otherwise you end up trying to be someone else, and you missed out on all these years of being yourself. Being a girl singing and playing the banjo from the heart has worked, and I think that is the most important thing.”

In the past 50 years the banjo has traveled in astonishing and diverse of directions, yet Abigail’s musical travels to China are potentially unprecedented. As preconceptions of the banjo and its limitations are shattered on what seems like a weekly basis, with the emergence of Abigail and her banjo, it is undeniable that the banjo is the instrument of the new millennium.

Abigail’s new record Song of the Traveling Daughter is out
on Nettwerk America.
Uncle Earl’s She Waits for Night is out on Rounder
Records.

www.abigailwashburn.com
www.uncleearl.net