"A daring, definite talent, whose feel for the folk idiom results in moving material. Soulful is the word"-- Wall Street Journal

"Washburn stomped and skipped through fiery Appalachian takes on the local songs of Sichuan. Her bilingualism's no gimmick; she nails the dips and peaks of pitch while leading her band in scorching variations on simple, repetitive traditional melodies…” – L.A. Times

“{Abigail Washburn is} an artist who best embodies the notion of Americana as a worldwide musical language" – The Tennessean

Abigail Washburn never set out to be a songwriter, recording artist or a producer. She planned to move to China after a road trip up the east coast, but instead stumbled upon a professional music career. This trip included a stop at the International Bluegrass Music Association conference in Louisville, KY where she intended to learn a few banjo tunes but walked away with a demo session for a record deal in Nashville, TN. She canceled her one-way ticket to China and moved to Nashville. Shortly thereafter in 2004 she joined Uncle Earl. The "all G'earl" group released two records on the Rounder label, She Waits for Night (2005) and Waterloo, TN, (2007) the latter of which was produced by John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin.

In the midst of touring with Uncle Earl, Washburn released her first solo debut, Song of the Traveling Daughter, (Nettwerk). Abigail joined cellist, Ben Sollee, in performing her music around the globe. In 2005 Abigail, Ben, and a few talented friends (Béla Fleck on banjo and Casey Driessen on fiddle) formed The Sparrow Quartet and toured China. In 2006, the US State Department and the American Center for Educational Exchange requested that the group come back to lead the first official tour of a US band in Tibet. In May 2008, the Sparrow Quartet released Abigail Washburn & the Sparrow Quartet (Nettwerk). In 2008 and 2009, Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet toured extensively throughout the US and Canada with appearances at festivals including New Orleans Jazz & Heritage, Merlefest, Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, Vancouver Folk Festival and many more. They were invited by the US State Department to play in China including several performances in Beijing during the 2008 Olympic games. In addition, they were filmed on National Geographic Live in Washington, DC and each member was invited to be a part of the Clearwater Concert, a benefit concert in celebration of Pete Seeger's 90th birthday.

In early March, 2009, Abigail had the idea to create Afterquake, a benefit EP in memory of the May 12, 2008 Sichuan Earthquake which left more than 5 million people homeless and hundreds of thousands dead. Abigail and The Shanghai Restoration Project united to go to Sichuan Province, to the relocation schools and into the disaster zone to capture the voices of those affected by the earthquake and sample sounds from the schools and the disaster zone. They sampled, recorded, and produced Afterquake in two and a half weeks. The final result is a timeless musical document that blends folk and electronic sounds with post-earthquake samples. A portion of all Afterquake proceeds goes to the Sichuan Quake Relief organization. .

"As more and more people engage in this struggle for a new direction for the human spirit, we'll recognize that we're morphing into a global species." ---Abigail Washburn