Abigail Washburn never set out to be a songwriter or a recording artist. So when she found herself on stage in a smoke filled Beijing club playing her banjo and singing old time Appalachian mountain music in Chinese to a packed house, she was as surprised as anyone.

In college in 1996 she joined a summer program in China and fell in love with Chinese culture; at times she found herself wondering what American culture had to offer the world.

On her return to the States, Washburn began to explore American culture, a journey that led her back to her native country’s traditional roots. She developed a new desire to explore her own culture, bought a banjo and carried it around without touching it for years. "It was 2002, I was living in Vermont working as a lobbyist when my good friends, the Cleary Brothers old-time string band, lost their banjo player after setting up a tour of Alaska. I got a crash course in banjo and joined the band for the tour." Washburn sang lead, harmony, and played the banjo, and discovered a love for live performance.

She merged her love of China with her new career in American roots music by arranging a small group of good friends and bluegrass pros for a mini-tour of China. “I did ten days with the band and a couple of solo dates,” Washburn said. “The audience was mostly Chinese at the Universities and mainly ex-pats at the bars. We played American folk songs, and original material in both Chinese and English, and it seemed to go over well.

“At this point, I’m caught between two cultures, but I like being a bridge. I want to keep going to China and living a creative existence. I want to learn more about Chinese folk traditions, so I can integrate them into my music and continue to be a part of the development of a more universal language.”

On Song of the Traveling Daughter, 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.

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