CMT Blog: Archive

At Bonnaroo, I had the pleasure of chatting with Abigail Washburn from the Sparrow Quartet. Her band consists of truly incredible musicians: Grammy-winning and innovative jazz banjo player Bela Fleck, the "king of fiddle chop" Casey Driessen, and cellist Ben Sollee. Abigail sticks to vocals and old-time banjo. They first got together to play a tour of China in 2005. Then they were asked to be the first American band to officially tour Tibet... EVER. They have also been invited to perform at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

The melodies often are that of old-time tunes and ballads, but lyrically can be all over this world, literally. Abigail can speak and sing fluently in Chinese and incorporates that into her music very heavily. Now, I don't understand Chinese even a little, but it almost doesn't matter what the words are saying. The way her voice carries through the lyrics, it sounds no farther from home than the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Other members of the band have their own creative things going on. Bela Fleck has a movie out called Throw Down Your Heart, where he went to Africa to study the banjo and play with local African musicians. Casey Driessen was nominated for a Grammy for a solo album called 3D that has a really funky version of "Sugarfoot Rag" on it. He's been working on a new project, too. Ben Sollee is a hidden gem in this band. He just released a solo album called Learning to Bend that features original songs that have a heavy folk feel but also keeps it hip with what the cool kids would want to listen to.

The Sparrow Quartet will be busy touring together through October. Each member has about a million other side projects going on, so you can always try to follow another band member. These musicians are really doing impressive things in the current state of the world, serving as ambassadors through music in several countries. I say vote for the Sparrow Quartet in 2008. Who wouldn't want two banjos in the White House?