P H O T O C O U R T E S Y O F A B IG A IL W A S H B U R N
The original
blend of
Americana
and Chinese
folk returns
to Portland
BY SUE ZALOKAR
language that rolls off her lips as fluently as her
native English. You won’t find any songs written in
f old-time Americana and traditional Chinese
Chinese on her latest album, City of Refuge. What
music were to meld and produce a flesh-and-
you will find is a collaboration of a diverse “village”
blood child, the result would be Abigail
of players and contributors, catchy grooves,
Washburn. Combining the two musical genres with electronic loops and, of course, that old-time
her ethereal writing and clawhammer banjo style,
sound.
Washburn has established herself as one of the
Washburn and songwriting collaborator Kai
most unusual and otherworldly players to hail from
Welch will be headlining a show at Mississippi
Nashville, Tenn.
Studios on Sunday, April 1. Local groups, Calico
Washburn spent the first five years of her
Rose and Casey Neill are also on the bill. Doors
musical career touring with the all-girl American
open at 7:30 p.m., show starts at 8 p.m.
old-time music group Uncle Earl. She went on to
focus on her first solo album, Song of the Traveling
S u e Zalokar: How would you describe your music
Daughter, in 2005. During the making of this
to someone who has never heard you play before?
album, Washburn met and developed a friendship
with premier banjo player Bela Fleck of Bela Fleck
Abigail W ashburn: Whew. That’s a hard one. I
and the Flecktones.
sit next to people on planes all the time and they
Together with Fleck, Washburn helped form the
say what do you do? And I say, “Well, I make
Sparrow Quartet, which blended East and West
music.” And they say, “What does it sound like?” I
sounds. In 2006 — at the request of the U.S.
usually say that I play the banjo and I sing. And
government, the Sparrow Quartet toured Tibet,
then I say that I speak Chinese and I sing in
and went on to perform at the 2008 Olympics in
Chinese. And I write lots of songs in both English
Beijing. Her sound has captured the ears of Robyn
and Chinese, and all of my music is very much
Hitchcock and Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones.
inspired by traditional music. There is also an
More recently, she was a guest performer at Pete
indie, folk, pop quality to what I’m doing these
Seeger’s 90th birthday celebration.
days and maybe a little bit of experimentation with
In 2009, Washburn and Fleck married and set
sounds outside of the acoustic realm.
the stage for a banjo-playing heir that, if ever
conceived, will surely be the grand ruler of all
S.Z.: You were heading to study law in Beijing and
things banjo.
had not considered a musical career. How did your
Her first songs were written in Mandarin, a
musical journey begin?
S T A F F W R IT E R
I
A.W.: One huge turning point was hearing Doc
Watson singing and playing “Shady Grove” at a
party one time near the end of college. I had been
so obsessed with China. The stuff of Roman
traditions that we long forgot about in our modern
culture are not long forgotten there. The inertia,
the sheer energy of that history and the ancestral
line of tradition and culture, it is insuppressible. It
is in everything, and it’s everywhere there. Even
though the economy and the big city rush for
wealth would try to make you think otherwise, it’s
there still in a major, major way. I didn’t really
know what was special about America. I couldn’t
really put my finger on it, and I couldn’t find my
touchstone of American greatness.
When I heard Doc Watson coming out of that
record player, I was like, what is that sound? Who
is that? Doc Watson was from the hills of North
Carolina and he played what we call “traditional
American music.” I thought, this is the soul of the
sound of America. This is it right here. It’s hard to
tell (by listening to his music) if he’s black or if
he’s white. It was so groovy because of the
syncopation of the banjo and it being, actually, an
African instrument. And the words that come from
probably Scotland or Ireland and then found their
way into Kentucky and North Carolina and started
taking on different word replacements and the
melodies became more mountain. It was this
See WASHBURN page 5
Safety net swings
The hidden
Our wealth of
in the balance
epidemic
food - most of it
Homeless and
housing services
compete fo r
shrinking city fu n d s
Health care expert
William Charney
on medical errors
unhealthy
Page 3
Page 8
How to fig h t back
against the food
industry
Page 10