Monday Video: Abigail Washburn’s TED Talk

Turns out you get some pretty interesting results when you search the TED talks for “banjo”. Here’s a talk given by Abigail Washburn, known for combining American traditional banjo music with Chinese lyrics in projects like the Sparrow Quartet, which also included Abigail’s now-husband Bela Fleck.

On the surface, it’s easy to say why I would be interested in this woman and her work, especially given that she plays banjo with one of the best banjo pickers alive today. But looking deeper, there’s a lot about what she does that resonates with me. The crucial element in her music is the combination of traditions and cultures. Often she plays an American rhythm on the banjo while singing in Chinese. There’s a common tonality, though, and the melody or the accompaniment could sound perfectly in place in either musical background. Metaphorically, too, she talks in this video about finding this connection between different people through music. Funny story – she originally intended to become a lawyer to improve US-China relations. Now, with the banjo, she seems to be doing quite well at that. No joke. Her group the Sparrow Quartet was the first American band to officially tour Tibet on a “government-sponsored cultural mission”.

But there’s an even more particular relevance to my current fusion project, Gangstagrass, which combines bluegrass with hip-hop. I play banjo while MCs rock the mic, delivering a heavy flow of intricate lyricism. The parallel here with Abigail Washburn is more than cross-genre or cross-culture. Specifically, our band blends the instrumentals of one kind of music with the lyrics – and language – of another kind that fans of the first might have a hard time understanding. The language of rap is partially about accent, partially about dialect, but very much about packing a lot of meaning into a neat rhythmic package. The rhymes can be delivered fast or slow, but they can be so dense that even though these rappers are speaking English, it can sound like another language. But, as founder Rench has so often explained, these two styles of music are mostly saying the same things, which is what makes the fusion work so well.

So the idea that Abigail expresses near the beginning of this talk is fundamentally important to me. Her story of how she found the banjo – she was at a party and someone put on a Doc Watson record – points to a key concept in traditional, or “folk” music: legitimacy. She said:
“after being totally and completely obsessed with the mammoth richness and history of Chinese culture, it was like this total relief to hear something so truly American and so truly awesome.”

I think that’s something that a lot of people deal with, not just musicians. In an increasingly multicultural world, we all want to feel like we come from somewhere real and important. I was at the library earlier today, in fact, looking through Alan Lomax’s book on American folk traditional music. I was grappling with these same feelings – the same feelings, probably, that Lomax dealt with when he went out to find this “real” music. But as much as it helps to research and fully understand the background and context of the music, the truest revelation you find is that people are all the same, and they’re all just trying to get through their day. That’s the last sentiment Abigail leaves us with at the end of the talk, and that’s what I want to end with here. Watch the video, it’s short and sweet. (Like Abigail.)

Two Folk Alliance Articles

Looking Forward to This

All I can say is, be there, because it’s going to be entirely incomparable.
We’ve got several festivals lined up this summer, all amazing, but I will say that for me personally there’s nothing better than playing the premier bluegrass festival of the Northeast; especially playing it with America’s favorite bluegrass hip-hop band.

Grey Fox 2014

Mark your calendars:

By the time they realize what they’ve done, it will be too late to kick us out of Grey Fox.

Folk Alliance Tweets

Holiday Card Update

Sasha Boak-Kelly just informed me that the final Bard Holiday Card from 2012 won a Bronze award from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education District 2 Accolades Award Committee. I posted about the Bard Holiday Card last year. The video features The Sparrows’s song, “Brave.”

Bard College Holiday Video 2012 from Bard College on Vimeo.

The highlights of the judge’s comments included “Nice use of music, poetry, and text within the video medium.”

How exciting!

One of the greatest

I thought this article was several years old, but I was amazed to find that he is only now being inducted into the IBMA Hall of Fame.
Remember, it may take until you are 62 to be recognized for what you do. Just follow this guy’s example, and keep doing it well, and I do believe you will find satisfaction long before you get recognition.

Demo Video for Mandolin Brothers!

Well that was nifty! I got to play a beautiful authentic pre-war Gibson Mastertone banjo today. The kind folks at Mandolin Bros needed a demo video for their website, and I was happy to oblige!


Playing “Good Woman’s Love” — more like a good banjo‘s love!