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Song of the Traveling Daughter

Abigail WashburnAudio CD
4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)

Price: $11.01 & FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details
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Music

Image of album by Abigail Washburn

Photos

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Videos

Abigail Washburn and The Sparrow Quartet

Biography

If American old-time music is about taking earlier, simpler ways of life and music-making as one’s model, Abigail Washburn has proven herself to be a bracing revelation to that tradition. She—a singing, songwriting, Illinois-born, Nashville-based clawhammer banjo player—is every bit as interested in the present and the future as she is in the past, and every bit as attuned to ... Read more in Amazon's Abigail Washburn Store

Visit Amazon's Abigail Washburn Store
for 3 albums, 11 photos, videos, and 4 full streaming songs.

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Song of the Traveling Daughter + City of Refuge + Abigail Washburn & The Sparrow Quartet (Dig)
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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)

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."

Customer Reviews

4.9 out of 5 stars
(23)
4.9 out of 5 stars
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Abigail Washburn is a musician to watch. Sires  |  8 reviewers made a similar statement
I was not disappointed when I recieved it and listened to the whole album. Tory Anderson  |  8 reviewers made a similar statement
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
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."
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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars This is a beautiful CD August 24, 2005
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!
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Listen! January 13, 2006
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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Continues the tradition.
Fine young artist and will mellow with maturity. Debby McClatchky could have been her soul mama. I feel that Abigail Washburn could use a little "grit" in her sweet style,... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Stagehand Jim
5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible album
I heard of Abigail Washburn on NPR last year and she sounded quite interesting. I finally springed for one of her albums and absolutely loved it! Read more
Published on June 2, 2010 by Stephen J. Van Hook
2.0 out of 5 stars She can do much much better !
For an American Old Timey Banjoist she appears to have tried really hard not to play her Banjo at all! Read more
Published on May 27, 2010 by HoraceHorse
5.0 out of 5 stars A cultural journey not to be missed.
I have to admit being somewhat biased- I met Abigal at a festival some years ago and have been hooked ever since. I also have family ties to China, an additional draw. Read more
Published on January 11, 2009 by T. Gannon
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing and Haunting
I never heard of Abigail Washburn until her interview on NPR. After hearing a few sound clips I was incredibly intrigued to hear the rest of her albums. Read more
Published on October 24, 2008 by A. Androff
5.0 out of 5 stars My introduction to folk music
Don't own another folk album and I don't think I've ever written an amazon review, but this album moves me that much. Read more
Published on June 3, 2008 by Andrew Greenfield
5.0 out of 5 stars Sublime!
Sublime! You haven't lived until you've heard bluegrass sung in Chinese. Note that (as of 3/16/08) all 17 out of 17 reviews on this album are 5-star. Read more
Published on March 16, 2008 by Blind Willie
5.0 out of 5 stars Great album--not the same old thing.
The music here is at once serene and lively. It has a depth that keeps unfolding with repeated listening. Read more
Published on September 29, 2007 by Julie Newell
5.0 out of 5 stars Bela Fleck's favorite Banjo Player
I've read through these reviews, and so many of them are from people who were blown away at one or another folk festival, and my story is no different. Read more
Published on May 8, 2007 by T. Porges
5.0 out of 5 stars Tibet or West Virginia - Sensational
I heard Abigail and the Sparrow Quartet in Tibet and then on Mountain Stage.

She is an incredibly talented musician and she has things to say which are worth listening... Read more
Published on January 27, 2007 by R. Robbins
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