Abigail Washburn

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Abigail Washburn
Abigail Washburn.jpg
Abby Washburn at Merlefest 2007
Background information
Born (1977-11-10) 10 November 1977 (age 35)
Origin Evanston, Illinois
Genres Americana
Old-time music
Instruments Vocals, Clawhammer Banjo
Labels Nettwerk
Associated acts Bela Fleck
Website www.afterquakemusic.com

Abigail Washburn (born November 10, 1977) 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.

Contents

Biography[edit]

Washburn was born in Evanston, Illinois, and 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, where she had dreams of being a lawyer (having first visited that nation in 1996). She then spent three years in Vermont before moving to Nashville, Tennessee.[1]

In Tennessee, she met KC Groves, one of the founding members of the band Uncle Earl and she went on to spend five years touring with the band. The "all G'earl" group has released two records on the Rounder Records record label, She Waits for the Night (2005) and Waterloo, TN (2007), which was produced by John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin.

Washburn entered a songwriting contest at MerleFest (a bluegrass music festival in North Carolina), winning second place for her song "Rockabye Dixie", and gaining the attention of the Nettwerk record label.

Her first solo album, Song of the Traveling Daughter, was produced by Béla Fleck and features Ben Sollee, a cellist, and Jordan McConnell, guitarist for the Canadian traditional and soul music fusion band The Duhks. Two songs were recorded in the Mandarin Chinese language, which she learned while living in China.

In 2005, Washburn returned to China with a group called the Sparrow Quartet, composed of Sollee, Fleck and Grammy Award nominated fiddler Casey Driessen. The group then recorded an EP, Abigail Washburn The Sparrow Quartet.

In 2008, Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet recorded a full-length album, Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet. It was produced by Béla Fleck and composed and arranged by the foursome.

After the release of the album, Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet turned their attention to touring North America, with appearances at festivals including New Orleans Jazz & Heritage, MerleFest, Bonnaroo Music Festival, Vancouver Folk Festival and others. They returned to China for performances during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The quartet was later featured on National Geographic Live and, in 2009, each participated in the Clearwater Concert, a benefit concert in honor of Pete Seeger's 90th birthday that featured many of the world's most well-known musicians.[2]

Inspired by a 2008 volunteer experience for Sichuan Quake Relief in China, Abigail joined forces with Shanghai Restoration Project's David Liang in March 2009 to create Afterquake. The benefit EP (a portion of each sale benefits Sichuan Quake Relief) was released on May 12, 2009, the first anniversary of the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake. Over the course of two weeks, Washburn & Liang recorded and produced the entire project, which features electronic mixes of student voices and sounds from the disaster zone, in Sichuan, China.

In early 2010, Washburn began recording her second solo album with producer Tucker Martine and collaborator Kai Welch.[3]

In September 2012, she will be featured in a campaign called "30 Songs / 30 Days" to support Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, a multi-platform media project inspired by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s book. [4]

Personal life[edit]

In August 2007, Washburn was reported as being the "girlfriend" of Béla Fleck.[5] In September 2008, Fleck was alleged to be the "boyfriend" of Abigail Washburn. In May 2009, the Bluegrass Intelligencer satirized the upcoming wedding of Washburn and Fleck, joking that the couple promise to have a "male heir" who will be the "Holy Banjo Emperor".[6] In February 2010, The Aspen Times reported that Washburn had become Fleck's wife in the previous year.[7] In a July 2010 interview, Washburn said she first met her husband in Nashville at a square dance—she was dancing and he was playing.[8]

On Sunday May 19th, 2013, Abigail Washburn gave birth in Nashville to their baby, a boy named Juno Fleck. [9]


Discography[edit]

Title Album details Peak chart
positions
US Grass US Heat
Song of the Traveling Daughter
  • Release date: August 2, 2005
  • Label: Nettwerk Records
 3 —
City of Refuge
  • Release date: January 11, 2011
  • Label: New Rounder
 2 9
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

Afterquake Music[edit]

  • Afterquake EP (2009)

The Sparrow Quartet[edit]

  • The Sparrow Quartet EP (2006)
  • Abigail Washburn & The Sparrow Quartet (2008)

Uncle Earl[edit]

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

References[edit]

  1. ^ Holland, Roger (21 October 2005). "Song of the Traveling Clawhammer Banjo Player". PopMatters.com. Retrieved 2009-01-06. 
  2. ^ "Abigail Washburn Biography". Archived from the original on July 3, 2008. Retrieved January 1, 2013. 
  3. ^ Melzer, Ashley. "Shakori's collaborative energy | Music Feature | Independent Weekly". Indyweek.com. Retrieved 2012-09-17. 
  4. ^ "30 Songs / 30 Days for Half the Sky | Half The Sky". Halftheskymovement.org. 2012-08-30. Retrieved 2012-09-17. 
  5. ^ Stowe, Stacey (August 5, 2007). "Erin Torneo and Sascha Paladino". The New York Times. Retrieved December 10, 2010. "The band, consisting of the bridegroom's half brothers, Louie Fleck and Béla Fleck; the bridegroom's father, Joe Paladino; and Abigail Washburn, Béla Fleck's girlfriend, performed "Two of Us" by the Beatles." 
  6. ^ Editor (May 28, 2009). "Strategic Marriage Will Consolidate Power Within Single Banjo Sovereignty: Fleck, Washburn promise male heir, Holy Banjo Emperor". Bluegrass Intelligencer. Nashville: bluegrassintelligencer.com. Archived from the original on 28 October 2010. Retrieved December 10, 2010. 
  7. ^ Oksenhorn, Stewart (February 4, 2010). "Banjoist Béla Fleck brings his Africa Project to Aspen". The Aspen Times (Swift Communications). Retrieved December 10, 2010. "A year ago, Fleck appeared in Aspen as a member of the Sparrow Quartet, an ensemble led by fellow banjoist (and Fleck's girlfriend at the time, now his wife) Abigail Washburn that mixed Chinese folk songs, Appalachian gospel tunes, blues and more." 
  8. ^ Laskowski, Christine (July 8, 2010). "American Roots & a Love for China: Abigail Washburn Returns". Blog. The Beijinger. Archived from the original on 8 November 2010. Retrieved December 10, 2010. 
  9. ^ Watts, Cindy (May 22, 2013). "Bela Fleck, Abigail Washburn welcome baby boy". The Tennessean. Gannett. Retrieved May 23, 2013. 

External links[edit]

Listening[edit]

Authority control
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