Who is abigail washburn

Oct 9, Oct 5, Aug 23, Jun 12, May 21, Watch full Tiny Desk Concert video. May 8, May 7, One of us is having a baby! Our second child will arrive in June ! In , Asia Blog's Eleise Jones recounted how Washburn's ties to China actually predated her musical career: As a student in the late s, Washburn majored in East Asian studies and Mandarin, spent time in China, and was soon ready to pursue a degree in international law at Beijing University.

About the Author. Featured Posts. After the tour, Washburn decided she wanted more of the musical life. She moved to Nashville, where she continued banjo studies and began to write songs. In , she met Jingli Jurca, who would help her write her first song in Chinese, as well as K. Groves , a founding member of the old-timey string band Uncle Earl.

Washburn joined the second incarnation of Uncle Earl and appeared on the group's album She Waits for Night. The tune took second place and attracted the attention of Nettwerk Records. The resulting Song of the Traveling Daughter appeared in , and Washburn returned to the Asian continent to tour as part of the Sparrow Quartet comprised of Fleck , fiddle virtuoso Casey Driessen , and cellist Ben Sollee.

The U. In , Washburn , trumpeter and composer Kai Welch , and Chinese-born zither player Wu Fei met in a Beijing apartment and created the Wu Force trio simply by playing and conversing and improvising together. Their music defies genre, and draws on influences that range from pop and garage rock to traditional Chinese classical music and Appalachian folk. They learned to adapt to one another's diverse sounds, discovering during this process that they were all wary of trends in globalization, urbanization, and technology.

In January , Washburn released her third effort, issued on Rounder; entitled City of Refuge , it was produced by Tucker Martine who also played drums on the set and co-written with Kai Welch.

At the end of the year, she completed a month-long tour of China's Silk Road supported by grants from the U. Embassy in Beijing. Washburn was named the first U. After a global tour and the birth of their son, she and Fleck realized a long-held dream: to record a collaborative album.

In , Washburn and her husband collaborated with dance theater troupe Pilobolus on Echo in the Valley , an original work commissioned by the American Dance Theater.

The title, as well as some of the material, adorned Washburn and Fleck 's second duo offering. The album features the pair performing on seven different banjos "ranging from a ukulele to an upright bass banjo.