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 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,491 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #84 in Music > Country > Bluegrass > General

Track Listings

1. Sometimes

2. Rockabye Dixie

3. Coffee's Cold

4. Red & Blazing

5. Single Drop of Honey

6. Eve Stole the Apple

7. Who's Gonna Shoe

8. Backstep Cindy/Purple Bamboo

9. The Lost Lamb (Chinese)

10. Nobody's Fault

11. Halo

12. Song of the Traveling Daughter (Chinese)

13. Deep in the Night

14. Momma

Editorial Reviews

On Song of the Traveling Daughter, Abigail Washburn sings simple haunting songs and plays the banjo. Musically, the album is one of the most bare-bones debuts in recent memory. Washburn and fellow producers Reid Scelza and Bela Fleck keep the focus where it belongs: on the singer and the song. The arrangements were built around Washburn's evocative vocals and clawhammer banjo style, and Ben Sollee's cello, an instrument that brings a dark, primeval feel to songs that sound like they're hundreds of years old. The sparse instrumental work of guitarist Jordan McConnell (of the Duhks), upright bass player Amanda Kowalski, fiddler Casey Driessen, percussionist Ryan Hoyle (of Collective Soul), keyboard and accordion player Tim Lauer, along with Fleck's national steel guitar and banjo, add subtle grace notes to Washburn's timeless tales.

Song of the Traveling Daughter is an old-fashioned album with a simple, textured beauty that unfolds with repeated listening. There's a flow to the music that draws you in and immerses you in Washburn's unique worldview. While the album is studded with gems, several tracks stand out. "Rockabye Dixie" is a brokenhearted lullaby full of loss and longing, co-written by Beau Stapleton of Blue Merle. "Coffee's Cold" is a jaunty ragtime blues, with a bouncy bass line and exuberant vocal delivery. "Eve Stole the Apple" is the most atypical tune on the album, full of odd rhythmic accents. Part field hollar, part old English folk song; the tune is marked by an impressionist lyric that blends Biblical and folkloric images. "Deep in the Night" is a poetic exploration of darkness that features one of Washburn's most stirring vocals and the accents of Tim Lauer's accordion. "Song of the Traveling Daughter," one of Washburn's Chinese songs, and another album highlight, was inspired by the classical Chinese poem "Song of the Traveling Son." "It's actually harder to put English words to music than Chinese," Washburn explained. "Chinese is all one- or two-syllable words and most have open vowels at the end of the word, so the language almost sings by itself. If it has a closed sound it's usually something soft like 'teng' or 'mang.' If you listen closely to 'Song of the Traveling Daughter,' you can hear how easy it is to put them to music."

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 43 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

Format: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."

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful

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

By M. Wheeler

Format: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!

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Listen! January 13, 2006

By Alice Miller

Format: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.