Abigail Washburn’s first experience in China was dreadful. The Nashville-based singer-songwriter couldn’t speak the language and was tired of being dismissed as a “tourist with money.”
“So I became obsessed with the culture and I learned Chinese,” she said. “It taught me a lot about what it means to be an American; which for me was playing the banjo, singing and making music.”
Washburn’s obsession eventually led to the 2005 formation of The Sparrow Quartet in Beijing with friends Béla Fleck, Casey Driessen and Ben Sollee.
The quartet’s Sunday night performance at the Bluebird Nightclub was the Quartet’s first ever in Bloomington. Washburn praised the audience as “the best we’ve ever played for” and joked that any ethnomusicologists in the crowd should meet the band afterwards.
The Quartet borrowed musical ideas from nearly every continent on earth and played beneath Chinese lanterns Sunday night, but their songs remained firmly rooted in the distinctly American sounds of Appalachia. An enthusiastic audience yelped, laughed and clapped in approval throughout the Quartet’s two-set performance, which ended the first leg of their tour in support of their latest self-titled album.
Fiddler Driessen attributes the Quartet’s versatility to the “deep musical backgrounds” each member garnered through years of touring and performance study.
“We each bring different strengths to the band,” he said. “We are flexible musicians who always enjoy the challenge of playing new material.”
The Nashville-based singer-songwriter writes most of the Quartet’s material and plays claw hammer banjo alongside virtuoso banjoist Béla Fleck. Washburn fuses the lilting melodies and lyrics of Chinese folk with the stomp and banjo-bounce of traditional bluegrass. Fleck, known for his Grammy-winning work with the Flecktones, was drawn to the group by Washburn’s songs and the group’s tight vocal dynamic.
“I love the songs that Abby is writing and where she is coming from,” Fleck said. “It is an honor to figure out how to the music should go with that, which is something I really love to do.”
The Quartet explores the music of the world through the lens of a self-described “Banjo Pickin’ Girl.” The group first played together in Beijing, and toured China in 2005 before returning stateside. As the first American group to over officially tour Tibet, Washburn and friends have bridged two seemingly distant cultures through a common love of folk music.
Sollee, a native of Louisville, Ky., contributes masterful cello work and the crisp vocal harmonies beneath Washburn’s feather-light voice. Although the colorful slide banjo play of Fleck remains the band’s virtuosic trump card, Driessen’s agile fiddle provides a worthy counterpoint to Fleck’s warp-speed phrasing.
Fleck, the producer of the Quartet’s latest album, said that the group still surprises themselves with their creative breadth. A Fleck solo epitomized this idea as he drew from African, Indian, Asian and classical ideas, leaping in out of time signatures all the while.
“Once we make the record and start playing live we think, ‘Wow, we could go even further with a new set of material,’” he said. “I know it is intriguing for everybody, we need to find the right time, and this certainly is. I really hope we will find the right time again in the future.”
The Sparrow Quartet will be playing next on June 15 at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tenn.
