Song of the Traveling Daughter

Abigail Washburn | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 2, 2005)
• Original Release Date: 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Nettwerk Records
• ASIN: B0009X7704
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #25,707 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Old-time banjo music lives and breathes!, August 16, 2005

By 

Frank Hering "Banjo Player" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Song of the Traveling Daughter (Audio CD)

As a clawhammer banjo player, I listen to a lot of artists doing their own versions of old folk songs. The real treasure of this album is listening to this old-time banjoist create her own brand of old-time music. Her banjo has a really warm old-time sound, but she plays and sings her own stuff: songs about travelling, her relationship to religion/faith, her identity being wrapped up with her mother's, etc. The opening song, "Sometimes," is a great example of this: great old-time banjo playing, eventually joined by other string-band instruments, and Washburn's beautiful voice. She also plays some really nice bluesy numbers: Coffee's Cold (her own) and Nobody's Fault But Mine (Blind Willie Johnson and Nina Simone). Even her rendition of old-time songs is her own: she does a really nice faithful version of Backstep Cindy, adding some nice bluesy bends the third or fourth time through, and then transitioning into a Chinese folk song, Purple Bamboo. Really this is one of the best versions of Backstep Cindy that I've heard. There are so many good songs on here, it's hard not to talk about every one of them. Momma is a great soul searching song, as is Eve Stole the Apple, which explores her own relationship to transgression and defying Big Brother by contemplating some religious models who did the same (Eve, Jesus). This song is her own creation, but its bluesy, old-time sound draws inspiration, as she states in her notes, from Doc Boggs and from some other LOC Field Recordings. Fabulous album. Now I'm going to get the album of the group she's in: Uncle Earl's "She Waits for Night."

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a beautiful CD, August 24, 2005

By 

M. Wheeler (Milwaukee, WI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Song of the Traveling Daughter (Audio CD)

Let me start out by saying I'm new to this style of music. I was walking through a local music store and heard a few cuts from this CD and simply had to buy it. I've listened to it almost exclusively since then. It is a beautiful CD...it's simple, it's complex, it's musically stunning and the lyrics are compelling and moving. If you have any desire to seek out something different you simply must check out this CD. I think I'm in love!

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Listen!, January 13, 2006

By 

Alice Miller "guitar girl" (Moss Beach, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Song of the Traveling Daughter (Audio CD)

Now in my 60s, I started playing banjo and guitar nearly 50 years ago, and I have spent a career studying China. How wonderful it is to hear someone trace a tradition to its roots and make it her own, playing old songs and new ones of her own creation with wit and simple elegance. Washburn xiaojie--xie xie ni. Your music lightens an old woman's heart.