Blog posts

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  Oct 08 2008, 12:14 PM

  The middle of the "end"

  The Sparrow Quartet is in the middle of the end of our 2008 run of shows. We are planning for some shows for early next year in UK and possible CO and CA... but the big push is almost over. All we have left is Seattle, Portland, Knoxville, Eatonton (GA), Altanta and the LEAF festival. Let your friends know to come on out and check out the band!
  
  October 7 - St. James Hall, Vancouver, BC
  October 9 - Tractor Tavern, Seattle, WA
  October 10 - Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
  October 16 - Bijou Theatre, Knoxville, TN
  October 17 - Ferst Center for Performing Arts, Atlanta, GA
  October 18 - Plaza Arts Center, Eatonton, GA
  October 19 - Lake Eden Arts Festival, Black Mountain, NC
  
  We had some pals take some good photos over the past few weeks and thought we'd pass them along.
  
  Oct 3, First Parish Church, Harvard Square, Boston
  This was an amazing night. 600 seats sold out. Beautiful fall day with leaves turning color and dropping on the sidewalks. One of the first Unitarian Universalist churches ever built in the US... I was raised UU and visited the old churches of boston on a trip once in the 7th grade... cool life circumstance to end up performing in one. Wandered around the graveyard out back, all kinds of old names barely legible on the worn out rocks - Cornelius, Adelle, Zeella Belle, Samuel Smith.
  
  Our dear friend Amanda Kowalski came over to the church and took some pics during soundcheck and before the show. We'll post more as she sends them along:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Oct 4, we played the Flynn Theatre in Burlington, VT. I couldn't have been more pumped for a show because of my history in VT. I lived there from 1999-2003. I worked at the State House as a lobbyist for three years and also started learning banjo. I had a bunch of friends from Legislative Counsel at the State House turn up... I hadn't seen them in years. And all my pals that I had met thru music, when being a professional musician wasn't even a thought in my mind, showed up to root me on - The Cleary Brothers, and pals from Maple Corner. The Flynn is such a beautfiul and big venue that even up until the show was over I could barely believe I was the artist on stage that night. But just in case my memory fails me and I fall once again fall into disbelief, I took a picture of the sign:
  
  
  
  
  Sept 27, The Dosey Doe, Houston, TX
  This day was testimony to the strangeness of being a traveling musician - you just never know what each day is going to be like. We flew in from Bethesda this morning after playing The Strathmore in Bethesda, MD, an outrageously beautiful theatre with perfect acoustics built for the modern age of quartet music and filled up with over a thousand people. We weren't sure Houston was going to happen up until the last minute... no one was buying tickets, the hurricane had just pushed thru the city. Luckily the local NPR station started pushing our show the day before and the dinner theatre was almost filled to it's several hundred person capacity... very good news to hear. It's always painful to show up and realize that your gig is hurting the venue and the promoter financially... which is happening regularly as a result of the current financial crisis.
  
  We pulled up to the venue in our rented car. A good looking man in a cowboy hat and wranglers was standing outside of a barn-looking dinner house on the side of a major noisey highway waving us in, Ben commented that at first glance it looked like a fancy Logan's Steakhouse, located next to a pawn shop called "Guitars, Guns, Gold".
  
  
  
  As it ended up, The Dosey Doe is one of the cooler venues I've ever been lucky to play... self-made business men that brought the barn down from Kentucky and collected all kinds of awesome americana antiques to fill the place with a righteous 'old america' vibe, friendly people, gourmet food, espresso... they sent us away with piles of their fresh made coffee beans. Thanks to the coffee we made it to Austin that night after the show and pulled thru our set at Austin City Limits Fest the next day. A cool quote from a press reviewer the next day after our show in the Austin American Statesmen:
  
  Abigail Washburn singing folk songs from Sichuan Province (in Chinese!) with Bela Fleck on banjo and the rest of the Sparrow Quartet on Sunday — one definition of "art" is "a series of anticipated rewards." Washburn's set fit that definition to a T.
• 

  Aug 05 2008, 01:42 PM

  An interview with Zoe Trischka

  

  My friend, Zoe Trischka just sent me her fifth grade class project, ‘Modern Women in Progressive Acoustic Music.' She ended up choosing two subjects, myself and Aoife O'Donovan.  When she sent me her list of questions I was overwhelmed... they were such simple questions and yet required intense introspection and careful articulation. I wasn't sure I was ready for the task but tried my best.

  
  

  I was inspired personally by Zoe's project. Her questions helped me understand why I play music clearer than ever. I thought I'd make it available to you all in case you might find her inquiries and results inspiring as well. Below you'll find the full-length interview between Zoe and me.

  
  

  Zoe Trischka was born in Fairlawn, NJ to mother Assunta Trischka, 7th grade teacher at local public school, and father Tony Trischka, contemporary hero of progressive banjo music. Zoe is getting ready to enter 6th grade. She loves to dance and spends a lot of her daydreaming hours thinking about interior design.

  
  

  I'd like to thank Zoe for including me in her project.... I'm glad to know the future is in the hands of beautiful young women like her!

  
  

  1.     Why do you play music?

  
  

  I play music because it makes me feel more fully alive, and it gives me a way to express outwardly what my feeling of being alive is like. Everyday is a new opportunity to express this array of emotion and experience of being human. Music gives me a deeply creative ability to express how I feel things and see things as I go through my days. 

  
  

  Take a sad moment for instance...When I see something sad my mind and body deliver me tons of information about my experience of that sad moment. i usually feel a heat in my belly that turns cold and leads me to feel afraid and lonely... i can see a deep blue color, deep like the place in the ocean where the light on the surface starts to fade... this feeling and color leads my intellect to search for way to express this to the people around me that might help me feel better. Often i just express myself with words and emotion... but the most meaningful way i have ever expressed the feeling of sadness is to sing... to cultivate a sound that releases the heat and coldness, the darkening color. And when I sing I can share this experience of sadness with others in a way that unites us in a moment of attention to sound and, ultimately, gratitude for what it means to be alive. I've seen over and over again that singing heals and inspires. i can see no greater purpose in life.

  
  

  2.     Who were your influences or inspirations (musical or otherwise)?

  
  

  My biggest influences musically are my friends, family, teachers and all the personalities and artists that made me think and feel the way I do. My favorite piece of music from when i was a small child until now is Martin Luther King's I have a Dream speech. They say he was speaking but I think he was singing.  Not only did MLK have something so important for the American people to hear but he presented it with such gorgeous syntax, vocal lilt and chest voice conviction. It is the most beautiful song of hope I've ever heard, and it makes me want to sing for freedom and love.

  
  

  Other huge influences are Gandhi, my teacher in China Lao Wang, the great old time singers Hazel and Alice, the old recordings of George Washington Phillips, the amazing gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, the old time banjo playing of Riley Baugus and Dirk Powell, the great African singer Oumou Sangare, the folk music-oriented classical music of Bela Bartok, Chinese Folk music, Woodie Guthrie and Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and the list goes on.

  
  

  All of the other musicians I get to share time with on the road, and see perform have a heavy influence on my music as well.

  
  

  3.     How do you think your music differs from the women who came before you (in Bluegrass & Old Time music)?

  
  

  None of the women of old time music in the US that I know of had spent a lot of time in china, and sing in chinese. I suppose it is because of the modern age of travel and easy access to personal experience in other cultures that has made me a different kind of folk singer. I'm a product of my times to a certain extent. And I can see that people are becoming more and more of a global race.. I am probably just one of many early signs of this. Women of old time music in the early twentieth century were playing the folk music of their times. The generation prior to mine, folk revival of the 60s and 70s were obsessed with preserving and copying the sounds of the folk music. I am the newest generation and I am obsessed with incorporating my experience of a transforming geopolitical reality into my folk music.

  
  

  4.     Did you mean to have your music sound so progressive, or did it just happen?

  
  

  It just happened. I lived in China, came back, bought a banjo, started writing songs in both of the languages I speak, and before you know it people thought of me as different and expressive... and I've embraced the role! the most authentic progressive concepts seem to be those that organically emerge from a world in need of a next step of evolution. i believe that this can not be conjured but must be an expression of a concept with an already intense inertia.

  
  

  5.     What is your biggest or most significant contribution to Bluegrass or Old Time music?

  
  

  Probably the Chinese... or the global sense of being a folk musician. I am not acting a part, I am internally all the things I express in my music... this is not necessarily a contribution but a necessity of our changing times.

  
  

  6.     Do you wish to have other women follow in your footsteps?

  
  

  I love nothing more than seeing women feel full of the ability to share music. I wish that every woman in the world felt she had a voice to sing the struggle and joys of life. I also love seeing women playing instruments. The stronger women's voice become in music, the more the beauty of femininity will add to the power of music.

  
  

  7.     Do your band members contribute to your musical success and/or progress?

  
  

  Band members are a huge part of the sound and experience myself and the audience experience during a show or on a recording. I've been very picky about the people I want to work with and I get pickier everyday. I don't mean that I'm picky about the musical hang... I love folk music because it's not elitist, it's about everyone making music... ilove being a part of this community. When it comes to the small group of musicians that I take the time to make recordings and performances with, I become very picky. i need to work with people that share a common mission to move the audience in a similar way. It's like a sports team with a goal of winning... you create rules and strategies for success... and if every member is not on the same page, the important stuff falls thru the cracks, and it becomes hard to "win". I need to work with people that feel like they're on a team. I need total empathic and virtuosic commitment to a common sound. I have high ideals!

  
  

  8.     What are your thoughts about the future of progressive acoustic music?

  
  

  Well, I think the future of progressive acoustic music should help influence the way we as humans morph further and further into a global species. I want my contribution to music to change the way people think about the term world music. I would like to see music help dissolve the barriers between people... the barriers of nationhood, race, gender, class. I would like to see us calling ourselves global citizens... keepers of the earth, keepers of a world civilization full of miraculous diversity that gives us richness of experience rather that reason to find fault.

  
  

  9.     Can you comment on Alison Krauss and Aoife?

  
  

  In my eyes both Aoife and Alison are phenomenal and talented women. They are so strong and beautiful and uncompromising of this in the presentation of their music. They are both magnetic creatures. I look to both of them as cohorts in the music world... i watch them to see how to change and grow my music. I watch them to see how they navigate the music industry and I take notes on their successes. I can feel that the greater their success the greater mine as well.  I would like all of us to be on stage together some day singing. 

  
  

  10.  Is there anything you'd like to add, especially about your music?

  
  

  i think i've said enough crazy stuff!

  
  

  go banjo!!

  
  

  zoe rocks!!!!

  
  

   

  
  

   
• 

  Jul 24 2008, 12:44 PM

  Sparrow Quartet in the news

  Hi!
  
  Just wanted to let you know that Newsweek magazine published an article about us in their last issue. There's even a video to go along with the article!www.newsweek.com%2Fid%2F145537" title="http://www.newsweek.com/id/145537" target="_blank" style="cursor: pointer; color: #3b5998; text-decoration: none;">Click here to check it out.
  
  Also, pick up a copy of the August issue of Paste magazine to read another little blurb about what we've been up to.
  
  And, check our tour dates here or at www.abigailwashburn.com" title="http://www.abigailwashburn.com" target="_blank" style="cursor: pointer; color: #3b5998; text-decoration: none;">our web site to see when we'll be playing in your neck of the woods.
  
  Hope to see you on the road,
  Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet
• 

  Jul 22 2008, 01:17 PM

  Abigail's tales from the road

  

  I was on the phone with my friend the other day and she said, "You really should write about your crazy schedule. People that aren't traveling musicians don't know what it's like. Personally... I think you're insane."
  
  Until this conversation with my friend I thought it impossible that there could any broad interest in The Sparrow Quartet travel schedule... but maybe there is. I think I agree with her, I'm insane, but still I feel lucky to get to play music for a living. For those of you that are interested this is what the past 2 weeks have looked like, also see the pics of us waitingwaitingwaiting in airports.
  
  7/9 -travel day- fly Nashville to Duluth, MN - Connection in Minneapolis, dinner at an airport café while waiting for delayed flight. Arrive Duluth 12:30am.
  
  7/10 -Big Top Chattaqua Show- noon departure for Duluth airport hotel for two hour drive to Bayfield, WI for No Depression 3pm photoshoot, 4:30pm soundcheck and 7:30pm show. 10:30pm tear down. 11:30pm drive 
  two hours back to Duluth airport hotel. Sleep by 2am.
  *Country Inn & Suites next to the Duluth airport has a rockin' waterslide that Ben and Bela and I took advantage of...
  
  7/11 -Winnipeg Folk Festival- 4:45am lobby call for shuttle to airport for 7am flight to Winnipeg by way of Minneapolis. Sit on runway for 3hours, flight cancelled. Scramble for new flight. Arrive in Winnipeg 3pm, Bela and I go direct to world music workshop. Sleep in trailer backstage for 2hours, play mainstage set at 9:30pm. Midnight return to hotel.
  
  7/12 -Winnipeg Folk Festival-  10am lobby call for shuttle to festival. Noon workshop in rain and wind...water dripping from our instruments. 2pm shuttle to airport. 3pm flight to Vancouver Island via Calgary. Night off of good food at The Atlas Café and five pin bowling.
  
  7/13 -Vancouver Island Music Fest- 12:45pm banjo workshop, 3:30pm songwriting workshop, 7:30pm mainstage set. 11pm return to hotel pack up and drive 3 hours to Victoria. Asleep by 3am.
  
  7/14 -Benaroya Hall- 9am lobby call to return rental cars and catch the Victoria Clipper ferry to Seattle. Meet my mom in Seattle to borrow van and drive to downtown hotel. 30 min break before walk to venue for soundcheck. 5pm soundcheck, 6:30pm nap, 7:30pm show, opening for Earl Scruggs. Out to dinner with promoter and musicians 
  at 11pm. Asleep by 2:30am.
  
  7/15 -Aladdin Theatre- 11am lobby call for 3.5 hour drive to Portland. 3:45pm load in and soundcheck. 5:30pm 20 min nap in van. 8pm show. Asleep by 1am.
  
  7/16 -travel day- lobby call 9am for airport. 11am flight to Boston by way of Chicago. First flight late, miss second flight. Re-booked on later flight. Later flight mechanical problems, fly to Providence instead, rent two cars, asleep in Lowell, MA by 4:30am. Bags lost.
  
  7/17 -Lowell Summer Music Series- 2pm lobby call. Delay departure for bags. 3pm load in. 4:30pm soundcheck. 7:30pm show. Midnight departure for three hour drive to Ancra, NY. In bed by 3am.
  
  7/18 -Greyfox Bluegrass Festival- 9am rehearsal with Uncle Earl.  11am 20 min nap. Noon departure for festival. 2pm mainstage set with Uncle Earl. 4pm dance stage set with Uncle Earl. 7:30pm mainstage set. 11:30pm departure for Albany - slow driving thru torrential rains. In bed by 2am.
  
  7/19 -Vancouver Folk Festival-  5:30am lobby call for airport. Fly Albany to Vancouver, BC by way of Chicago. First flight fine. Second flight sat on runway in rainstorms for an hour, began to accel up ramp and came to a sudden screeching, smoking stop before lifting off. Apparently the engines were running at different speeds. Plane no good. Back to airport, wait on runway for gate. De-plane. New 
  plane found. Immediately before boarding crew hours expire, flight cancelled at 2pm. Re-booked standby on oversold 3pm flight... starting to cut close to set time at Vancouver. Last minute confirmation of seats. Arrive Vancouver 6pm. 8:25pm set time.
  *Albany flight attendent announces: "Any instruments without passports may not board the plane." And, "Anyone with a Boston Red Sox shirt on can board the plane first."
  
  7/20 -Vancouver Folk Festival/Showcase-  9am departure for 10am workshop with Red Chamber and John Reishman & the Jaybirds. 11:30am media tent for TV interviews. 1:20pm for workshop. 4pm depart festival for Nettwerk Headquarters to play showcase. 8pm leave for airport. 11:10pm flight to Nashville thru Chicago. 5am arrival in Chicago, customs, and now I'm sitting at the gate for a return home to Nashville at 6:40am, arrive Nashville 8am. Go home and sleep!  Repack to leave for another tour 48 hours later... first stop Colorado, Rockygrass.
• 

  Jul 10 2008, 12:49 PM

  Featured artist on Artist Direct

  Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet are one of the featured artists on Artist Direct right now!

  
  

  Be sure to watch their exclusive electronic press kit and live performance of "Kangding Qinge." Click here to check it out!

  
  

  You can also view the EPK on YouTube. Click here to watch Part 1. Click here to watch Part 2of the EPK on YouTube.
• 

  Jun 25 2008, 02:19 PM

  USA Today Backstage Pass

  Just a quick note to let you know that we filmed some footage backstage at Bonnaroo for Backstage Pass on the USA Today web site. There are several videos about our experience at Bonnaroo Arts and Music Festival in Manchester, TN. You can view them here.

  
  

  We are also excited to let you know that our new, improved web site has launched. Check it out for all our tour dates, videos, and blogs. We also posted some pictures from our time on the road and at Bonnaroo here.

  
  

  We hope to catch you at one of these upcoming shows:

  
  

  June 25 - Wolf Trap, Vienna, VA
  June 27 - Paramount Theatre, Charlottesville, VA
  June 28 - Troubadour, West Hollywood, CA
  June 29 - SoHo Restaurant, Santa Barbara, CA
  June 30 - Belly Up Tavern, Solana Beach,CA
  July 3 - High Sierra Music Festival, Quincy, CA

  
  

  Check our web site for a complete list of dates.
• 

  May 22 2008, 01:06 PM

  On the road

  

  Hello everybody-

  It's finally here! Our new record, Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet, has arrived and is available all over the place, including Amazon.com, iTunes, and The Connextion. The first 50 people to order from The Connextion will receive an autographed copy of the album signed by the band.

  If you're curious and look to listen before you leap, you can hear some of the tracks on our MySpace page or on our Facebook page.

  To keep up with all the latest news, sign up for our e-newsletter.

  The Nashville Scene just wrote a review of the new album, calling the Sparrow Quartet "...a one-of-a-kind prism capturing the glint of global perspectives and refracting it back in a hundred new and different ways." You can read the full review here.

  We're very excited about all of our upcoming CD release tour dates, and here are the first few of them. Be sure to check our site to see when we'll be playing near you. If you know someone near one of our tour stops, let them know we're coming!

  May 22

  • Variety Playhouse, Atlanta, GA

  May 23

  • Asheville Music Jamboree, Horseshoe, NC

  May 24

  • Asheville Music Jamboree, Horseshoe, NC

  May 25

  • DelFest, Grandstand Stage, Cumberland, MD

  May 27

  • Sellersville Theatre, Sellersville, PA

  May 29

  • Castle Clinton, New York, NY

  May 30

  • Swyer Theatre/Empire Center @ Egg, Albany, NY

  May 31

  • Iron Horse, Northampton, MA

  June 7

  • Old Town School of Folk Music, Chicago, IL

  June 8 • The Bluebird, Bloomington, IN

   

  Stay tuned for reports from the road, blogs and pictures...now the fun starts...

  Abigail