Catching Up With... Abigail Washburn

photo by Mickie Winters

Paste covered one of Abigail Washburn’s early trips to China back in 2005, where she helped introduce the banjo to the Middle Kingdom. She’s been busy since, first with all-female Americana act Uncle Earl, and most recently with the debut from The Sparrow Quartet—her collaboration with Béla Fleck, Casey Driessen and Ben Sollee (whose own upcoming debut is also worth checking out). We’re excited to have Washburn blogging for PasteMagazine.com at the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing, but first, we caught up with her on the back patio of our SXSW party in March, straining to hear each other over a raucous set from The Weakerthans.

Paste: Welcome, Abigail! Now, you’re here along with Béla Fleck, and you guys have a project together.
Washburn: Yeah.

Paste: Tell us a little bit about the Sparrow Quartet.
Washburn: Dude, what did you say?

Paste: (laughter) Tell us a little bit about the Sparrow Quartet!
Washburn: The Sparrow Quartet is this very unique, new sort of—I guess you could call it a chamber quartet. It’s a new sound. It’s a combination of five-string fiddle, cello, banjo and banjo. One banjo is played claw-hammer style and the other is played three-finger style by the great grandmaster Béla Fleck. We came together for the first time when we went on a tour of China in 2005, and they came because they were my friends. And then we started creating this material together and decided to cut a record this year. So it’s coming out May 20 on Nettwerk.

Paste: Right. And you’re still doing your solo stuff. And you’ve got another trip coming up to China, this time, for the Olympics.
Washburn: Yeah. The Sparrow Quartet is going to go play the opening of the new U.S. embassy in Beijing during the Olympics, and then we’re going to try and mix up a bunch of local gigs and Olympic-type entertainment stuff with that.

Paste: How has your week been so far here at SXSW?
Washburn: My week at SXSW has been incredible, but I have to report, when you asked me earlier "What bands have you enjoyed seeing so far?" I had nothing to report. And that’s because until last night I was preparing for my showcases. I had two on Wednesday, one yesterday and a bunch of interviews. So I ended up being on e-mail and interviewing all day, and it was pathetic. It was pathetic! So I’m here to say, today I’m going to see a bunch of awesome bands—starting with Kaki King—and they’re playing here on your showcase.

Paste: Great! Have you found that SXSW has been helpful for you—playing showcases here?
Washburn: Has it been helpful? I must assume so. The name SXSW alone is really meaningful, just the fact that we got an invitation to play here officially makes me feel like we’re part of a community of really broad-ranging, high-quality music that it’s an honor to be a part of. You know, all the tastemakers and industry people are here, and I hear that’s a good thing—if your music’s good. (laughs) I hope they consider it good, but we’ll keep making music no matter what.

Paste: That’s great. Well, thank you so much for being here. We hope to hear a little bit more from you when you’re in Beijing this summer. Maybe… hopefully?
Washburn: Yes!

Paste: That would be great.
Washburn: What did you say again?

Paste: (yells) Thanks!
Washburn: (yells) Thank you, Josh!

Paste: (yells) Whoo!
Washburn: High-five!