Banjo geniuses BELA FLECK & ABIGAIL WASHBURN PLAY THE SAGE GATESHEAD during their brief tour of the UK and Ireland, and with so few dates on the list the venue and others likewise chosen can genuinely feel honoured to have them.
Husband and wife, Fleck and Washburn between them have a wealth of experience, the former though came up through the ranks alongside the likes of Mark O’Connor, Jerry Douglas, Peter Rowan and was part of the 1980s Nashville acoustic mafia. His early work saw him record with a host of bluegrass bands.
This is as genuine a coop as you are likely to come across in the world of acoustic music, and as far as banjo players goes it is the one! Fleck though he has diversified his music over the years to embrace jazz and beyond when he formed his own band the Flecktones but there is no sign of filtration as far as Washburn is concerned, she is an old-timey specialist through and through and one of the best at that. Fleck has always stayed in touch with his roots on returning to record acoustic records, and other than performing on other peoples records has also made albums with the likes of fellow banjo great Tony Trischka.
Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn @ Howard Assembly Room
Tickets http://www.bandsintown.com/event/10194546?app_id=squarespace-abigail-washburn&artist=Abigail+Washburn&came_from=67
· Nov 14
Sat
Bela Fleck & Abigail Washburn at London Jazz Festival
Tickets http://www.bandsintown.com/event/9556787?app_id=squarespace-abigail-washburn&artist=Abigail+Washburn&came_from=67
· Nov 15
Sun
Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn @ St George's Bristol
Tickets http://www.bandsintown.com/event/10242664?app_id=squarespace-abigail-washburn&artist=Abigail+Washburn&came_from=67
· Nov 16
Mon
Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn @ Sage Gateshead
Gateshead Quays, United Kingdom
Tickets http://www.bandsintown.com/event/10242680?app_id=squarespace-abigail-washburn&artist=Abigail+Washburn&came_from=67
· Nov 18
Wed
Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn @ Whelans
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 the global as she is to the local. Abigail pairs venerable folk elements with far-flung sounds, and the results feel both strangely familiar and unlike anything anybody’s ever heard before. Her work with Uncle Earl came after one fateful day 9 years ago, Washburn was miraculously offered a record deal in the halls of a bluegrass convention in Kentucky which changed her trajectory from becoming a lawyer in China to a traveling folk musician. Since then, Abigail has been recording and touring a continuous stream of music. Her music ranges from the "all-g'earl" string band sound of Uncle Earl to her bi-lingual solo release Song of the Traveling Daughter (2005), to the mind-bending “chamber roots” sound of the Sparrow Quartet, to the rhythms, sounds and stories of Afterquake, her fundraiser CD for the Sichuan earthquake victims. Her latest release, City of Refuge (2011), written with collaborator Kai Welch, takes her bold and expansive musical vision to new heights with enigmatic songs that "mingle Appalachia and folk-pop, with tinges of Asia and Bruce Springsteen" (Jon Pareles, The New York Times).
Maurice Hope