Song of the Traveling Daughter – Abigail Washburn

I must admit, I got Song of the Traveling Daughter quite a while ago and have listened to it quite a lot.

The album has is a very interesting mixture of different styles of music. Washburn plays mostly Appalachian style folk tunes on the banjo but being an Asian studies major and having traveled to china, she incorporates a lot of styles from Asian folk songs, and in fact sings a few traditional Chinese folk songs on the album.

I personally love the album (if I didn’t I doubt I’d be writing about it). Abigail’s singing and banjo playing is beautiful. I also have a hard time resisting old-time music in general. it’s nice to hear something new and inventive, it seems like it’s not very often when someone is able to combine different traditions to make something new and wonderful.

I am a bit unsure how much mainstream attention Abigail Washburn has gotten. Luckily she has lots of music up on the web to listen to, this includes her homepage, facebook and myspace, so really there is no excuse to not hear a bit.

Also Béla Fleck (from Béla Fleck and the Flecktones) lends his skills on the banjo on a few songs. Interstingly enough, she just came out with a newer album called Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet (the quartet is Abigail Washburn {banjo and voice}, Béla Fleck {banjo}, Casey Driessen {violin}, and Ben Sollee {cello}). I’ll definitely be interested to hear more from her.

~ by jake Gest on July 22, 2008.