Abigail Washburn - Song of the Traveling Daughter CD

Song of the Traveling Daughter songs FAIR & SQUARE's release was highly anticipated by John Prine fans, as the veteran singer/songwriter hadn't recorded an album of new songs in 10 years (the preceding IN SPITE OF OURSELVES was mostly cover tunes). Happily for both Prine and his contingent, FAIR & SQUARE represents that most coveted of phenomena, the Return to Form. Though 1995's LOST DOGS & MIXED BLESSINGS was not without its virtues, some tracks were marred by overproduction. Here, though, the arrangements are scaled back down to Prine's comfort zone, appropriately rootsy to accommodate both the down-home amiability of his tone and the endlessly intriguing twists and turns of his unique lyrical style. While he's not untouched by contemporary events (references to the White House and the war in Iraq crop up), most of the tunes here are the sort of classic Prine material that made the songwriter a cult hero in the '70s. Equally important, the likes of "Crazy as a Loon" and "Some Humans Ain't Human" show that he still has his unique knack for making penetrating observations while maintaining his trademark wry humor. Live Recording Recording information: Minutia (10/16/2004); Ryman Auditorium (10/16/2004); Seventeen Grand recording (10/16/2004); The Butcher Shop (10/16/2004). Personnel: John Prine (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar); John Prine; Mindy Smith (vocals, background vocals); Dan Tyminski, Alison Krauss (vocals); Pat McLaughlin (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, mandolin, Wurlitzer organ, background vocals); Shawn Camp (electric guitar); John Wilkes Booth (mandolin); Phil Parlapiano (accordion); David Jacques (bass guitar); Kenny ...

Song of the Traveling Daughter CD music The fourth album by string-band revivalists Old Crow Medicine Show and their first for Nettwerk Records, O.C.M.S. is the band's strongest work. Evenly split between traditional folk and blues songs like "C.C. Rider" and "Poor Man" and originals by the band members, these 11 songs are solid, unpretentious folk-rock delivered with enough zest to lift it from the trad ghetto. The album ends with the band's signature song, "Wagon Wheel," which banjo player Ketcham Secor wrote around the chorus of an uncompleted song that appeared on a Bob Dylan bootleg in the mid-1970s. Recorded at RCA, Woodland Sound Studios, Nashville, Tennessee. Personnel: Critter Fuqua (vocals, guitar, bottleneck guitar, banjo); Willie Watson (vocals, guitar, banjo); Ketcham Secor (vocals, banjo, fiddle, harmonica); David Rawlings, Kevin Hayes (guitar); Morgan Jahnig (upright bass); Gillian Welch (drums). Recording information: RCA Studio B, Nashville, TN (2003); Woodland Sound Studios, Nashville, TN (2003). Photographers: Arianna Mercer; Danny Clinch. Arranger: Old Crow Medicine Show. Old Crow Medicine Show: Willie Watson, Critter Fuqua (vocals, guitar, banjo); Ketch Secor (vocals, fiddle, harmonica); Kevin Hayes (guitar, gut-jo); Morgan Jahnig (upright bass). Additional personnel: David Rawlings (guitar); Gillian Welch (drums).

Song of the Traveling Daughter buy CD music Kathleen Edwards excels at simple denim-and-leather country rock that recalls the best moments of Freedy Johnston and Lucinda Williams. Like these artists, Edwards writes mournful vignettes from the POV of down-at-the-heel small-town folks, with a rueful tenderness that suggests compassion beyond her years. Edwards sings in a pretty-yet-tomboyish voice that conveys longing, frustration, and often a vivifying redemption. Tom Petty sideman Benmont Tench and Sarah McLachlan's mentor Pierre Marchand help out on keyboards, while guitarist (and occasional co-writer) Colin Cripps provides tasteful leads that take flight when Edwards's vocals hover closer to the ground. Edwards has a gift for writing choruses that burrow under the skin, both for their melodic seductiveness and their lyrical acumen. "Away," an airy acoustic tune about an abandoned love, haunts long after listening, and the boisterous title track boasts a compelling refrain. The most effective song overall is "Copied Keys," a mid-tempo lament about being subsumed by a relationship conducted on someone else's terms. The album ends on an up note with the gently philosophical "Good Things." Recording information: Reaction Studios, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Personnel: Kathleen Edwards (acoustic guitar, acoustic 12-string guitar, electric guitar, banjo, strings); Kathleen Edwards (vocals); Jim Bryson, Jim James (vocals); Eric Heywood (pedal steel guitar); Richard Underhill (alto saxophone); Chris Gale (tenor saxophone); Bryden Baird (trumpet); William Carn (trombone); Kevin McGarragher (bass guitar); Gary Craig (drums); Peter Von Althen (shaker, tambourine); Colin Cripps (electric guitar, electric 12-string guitar, slide guitar, xylophone, tambourine); Richard Bell (accordion, piano); Benmont Tench (piano, organ); Pierre Marchand (piano); Joel Christopher Anderson (drums, percussion). Audio Mixer: Jim Scott .

Song of the Traveling Daughter album for sale On Uncle Earl's second outing, She Waits for Night, the only founding member of the group, K.C. Groves, sounds unlike the face of the project, but instead like a piece of a conglomerate where all members represent an equal value. It's a remarkably selfless move, considering Groves pieced together an entirely new band for the album, and a smart one that embellishes each member's gifts, raising the whole up to a level each musician likely wouldn't have so effortlessly reached on her own. The musicianship here is remarkable, but in a very unassuming and relaxed way that turns She Waits for Night into an ultimately more pleasant spin than the cutting contests that fill popular contemporary bluegrass and folk. Simply put: these women emerged on the scene to play songs, not to arpeggio their way into the limelight. That isn't to say the performances are underdeveloped, certainly Rayna Gellert's fiddle and Abby Washburn's banjo interplay on the opening cut, "Walking in My Sleep," attest to the top-notch instrumental skill of which the group is capable. Throughout, the quintet also showcase their vocal talent -- each member trades off lead vocal duties and the gentle, lifting harmony support -- while producer, Dirk Powell, had the presence of mind to let the natural resonance of Uncle Earl's instruments propel the album without compressing it into slick production. Powell's approach protects the integrity of Uncle Earl's old--timey folk sound, a virtue that seems to have become rare in contemporary acoustic music, and one that lets the band breathe through their pieces without stricture. ~ Gregory McIntosh "She Waits For Night" - Uncle Earl's first full-length album, released in 2005 on Rounder Records positioned the all-g'Earl quintet as one of the most exciting and promising new bands to emerge in any genre. Call it old-time for our times: with their infectious energy, undeniable charisma, sharp musicianship, and unique repertoire of original and traditional songs, Uncle Earl are bringing the stringband legacy proudly into the modern era. Their debut album, She Waits for Night, is that rare project that is enriched by tradition but never enslaved by it - at once both defiantly old-fashioned and defiantly contemporary. "The most exciting of the new string bands gleefully kicking old time music into the 21st century. Its sound is enticingly raw, urban-edgy, and irresistibly high-stepping." - The Boston Globe " ...spellbinding." - No Depression Liner Note Author: Dirk Powell. Authors: Dirk Powell; Scott Alarik. Photographers: Maria Camillo; Doug Coombe. Uncle Earl: K.C. Groves (vocals, guitar, mandolin, bass instrument); Kristin Andreassen (vocals, guitar); Abby Washburn (vocals, banjo); Sharon Gilchrist (vocals, mandolin, bass instrument); Rayna Gellert (vocals, fiddle). Personnel: Kristin Andreassen (vocals, guitar); Abigail Washburn (vocals, banjo); Rayna Gellert (guitar); Dirk Powell (banjo, accordion); Christine Balfa (triangle).

Song of the Traveling Daughter CD music City of Refuge, the ambitious third album by singer, songwriter, and banjoist Abigail Washburn, extends the reach of both the stripped-down roots sounds on Song of the Traveling Daughter and the more musically exploratory Abigail Washburn & the Sparrow Quartet. She's been seasoned by continually playing with stellar musicians and opening herself to musical traditions from those of the Deep South and the British Isles to folk traditions from Asia, jazz, and rock. This set showcases her singing and lyrics up front. Produced and mixed by Tucker Martine, City of Refuge boasts an extensive and impressive list of players and singers -- including Bill Frisell, Jeremy Kittel, Viktor Krauss, guzheng master Wu Fei, and Kai Welch, to name a few. In Martine, Washburn found the perfect collaborator: he understands implicitly how far-reaching her songs are; he assists her in cracking wide the conventions of traditions while showcasing their influence with reverence and grace. The title track opens with her clawhammer banjo-style playing "old-time mountain music," but quickly shape-shifts through country gospel, folk-blues, open droning tones, and shimmering rock. The orchestration on the heartbreaking "Bring Me My Queen" is spacious with lilting piano; Kittel's fiddle provides soft textural elements that let Washburn's voice articulate the deeply poetic lyric. Rayna Gellert's fiddle, Frisell's electric guitar, and a pedal steel adorn "Last Train," as Washburn and Welch harmonize the loneliness of loss and longing in her lyric. "Burn Thru" opens with what seems like a coda with an orchestral lushness that almost reaches a crescendo before it all disappears, just before Washburn, backed by acoustic guitars and her banjo, declares her resilience and her ability to transcend: "There's shadows in my tracks/I'm not lookin' back at the rest of you...I'm not goin' down with the rest of you." The musical abstraction and sheer beauty on City of Refuge is born out best on "Dreams of Nectar." Its root is an a cappella Appalachian ballad, but before long, Wu Fei's dreamy guzheng (a zither-like instrument) enters, and is layered upon by a humming choir, chirping birds, and even tempered brass instruments. Yet, even as the elements gel, they slowly dissolve into a gauzy haze, leaving the listener in reverie -- which is shattered by the stomping country gospel of "Divine Bell." The set closes with the haunting "Bright Morning Stars," a hymn that contains choir drones resembling the chanted throat-sung prayers of Tibetan monks. City of Refuge reveals that Abigail Washburn has grown exponentially as an artist. She's created a visionary American music that extends its traditions as it embraces others, free of borderlines. City of Refuge shines from West to East, from South to North -- and beyond. ~ Thom Jurek Recording information: Flora Studios, Portland, OR (2010); Sanctuary Studios, Nashville, TN (2010). Personnel: Abigail Washburn (vocals); Kevin Dailey, Ketch Secor (vocals, guitar); Yiliqi, Batubagen (throat singing); Kai Welch (guitar, trumpet, piano, pump organ, keyboards); Bill Frisell, Chris Funk, Carl Broemel (electric guitar); Jeremy Kittel (violin, viola); Annalisa Tornfelt, Rayna Gellert (fiddle); Nathaniel Smith (cello); Diego "D-Bone" (trombone); Joe Murphy (tuba); Viktor Krauss (double bass, electric bass); Jamie Dick, Tucker Martine, Kenny Malone (drums, percussion). Audio Mixer: Tucker Martine.

Song of the Traveling Daughter buy CD music To say that the members of The Sparrow Quintet have chops would be gross understatement. With multi-instrumentalist (but most notably banjoist) Bela Fleck, cellist Ben Sollee, and the Grammy-nominated fiddler Casey Driessen, singer/banjoist Abigail Washburn has assembled a dream team Appalachian jam band. But the formula's most intriguing aspect here is Washburn's incorporation of Chinese musical elements. She has toured in China, singing in Chinese, and songs like "Taiyang Chulai" and "Journey Home" bear the fruit of her cross-pollinating style. Fleck and Washburn's dueling clawhammer and three-finger banjo styles keep things boisterous. Personnel: Béla Fleck, Ben Sollee, Casey Driessen.