August Newsletter

Hello friends!

We have a new EP with the greatest title in the history of the universe: Banjo Banjo. It is a compilation of live tracks that you’ve heard a version of if you’ve seen us live and NEW tracks that have only been released as videos, if at all, including our banjo-voice rendition of the Chinese folk song “Good Flower Red” shared briefly on NPR this past Chinese New Year, a previously unreleased Béla Bartok piece AND our banjo-licious version of the 1980’s epic global hit “The Final Countdown”.

Available now on... iTunes, Amazon, & Spotify  CDs available Oct 2, Pre-order here Vinyl available late October

BANJO BANJO montage! We will soon start a campaign to get YOU and your loved ones to take a photo of yourselves with your most beloved banjo, be it your pre-war Gibson Mastertone or your Vega White lady or your cardboard cut version of a resonator banjo or your “air” banjo technique. However it is that you choose to express your love for the banjo in photographic form we will take them and compile them and make a super groovy banjo montage that will surely hang in our home for the rest of our lives. We need at least 150 photo submissions in order to make the montage look cool. So get your banjo and get busy making submissions. Here’s an example...

Every day is a new and surprising day with little Juno, now our fast growing, world-wandering little boy. I’m equal parts sad and glad to say that Juno is no longer a baby, he’s all toddler. Chasing birds, bunnies, squirrels. Drains on the street are an opportunity to find every rock within twenty feet and try to budge them through the slats in the grate. Holding him after he wakes up I ask him what he dreamed about and he gets a soft smirk on his face and passionately whispers “marbles”. He is a joy and immensely awesome and all-consuming travel partner (my backpack is stuffed with books, games and toys and washable markers and stuffed animals and wind up robots).

We’ve crossed the country four times by plane this summer and toured the midwest, NE and SE by bus.  From Muncie, IN to WFPK’s Louisville, KY waterfront, to Orkney Springs and the Shenandoah Valley to the dreamy beach front of Rockport, MA and the pirate ships of Portsmouth, NH to Grand Rapids with the Del McCoury Band, Chautauqua, Cincinnati, Roanoke & Wolftrap with the Punch Brothers, and epic festivals like Newport Folk, Telluride Bluegrass, Grand Targhee and Greyfox.

The most exciting piece of information that I can share with you is that we are on vacation, real vacation. Here are some pics of Juno that represent our relaxation and play vibes. Daily we make sand castles with embedded marble runs while taking breaks to run through tide pools and look for sea anemones and starfish on the exposed rocks. Early bedtimes and much needed recovery for momma and poppa.

But looking ahead we will soon be setting off again for our first “trio” tours to Madison, Milwaukee and Champagne-Urbana.

We also have a whole pile of dates coming in October from the midwest to the NE before we head off to Europe for the whole month of November.

And in case you missed them...

Krista Tippett’s On Being

Release of Shotgun Blues video 

Vinyl Release, Holiday Cards, & More Fun News!

It’s been a wildly eventful fall with the release of our first duo record, Juno turning a year and a half old and criss-crossing the country on tour. Juno is a joyful little road warrior, turning any side walk pile of rocks, airport news stand or public pay phone into an endless source of entertainment.  We’ve also encountered a whole pile of firsts in the last few months like playing the Grand Ole Opry, national TV debut for PBS News Hour (first TV for both Juno and I!), making live performance music videos on the Oregon coast and diaper changes in locations never imagined possible! There is so much to share with you. Let’s start with…

Want a Holiday Card from Bela, Juno & I?? Sign up here! Your address will ONLY be used for this holiday greeting.

Vinyl! Vinyl! Vinyl release and Holiday Merchandise Packages - All proceeds go to STAND FOR CHILDREN. To buy click here.

Stand for Children is a national organization that works across the country - from the classroom to the Capitol - to mobilize all Americans to make sure children are given the resources and opportunities to have a productive and satisfying future.

DEC 23 6:30pm central time donation-based show online at Concert Window - All proceeds go to STAND FOR CHILDREN

We’ll be settling in with the grandparents, some close friends and Juno for a live online concert from our home in Nashville, TN. Only $1 donation will get you into the show. We hope you can join us!

Nashville friends! Dec 13 at Grimey’s Bela & I will be opening the annual Christmas party! 

VIDEOS

Bela and I united forces with masonjarmusic and made a handful of live performance videos in beautiful spots on the Oregon coast. Rolling Stone Country is premiering New South Africa this week.

Earlier in November Wall Street Journal online premiered And Am I Born to Die performed in the most gorgeous spot in all the world.

PBS News Hour

Juno and I had our TV debut on PBS News Hour last month. The folks from PBS joined us during Rockygrass this past summer. You’ll see some performance footage of Uncle Earl and Juno looks mighty fine watching us from his stroller and helping Papa Fleck mix the show from the sound console.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/bela-fleck-abigail-washburn-meld-marriage-musical-collaboration/

Folk Alley

We met up with folkalleymusic cameras and recording gear at one of the finest sounding and feeling venues in the country, Troy Savings Bank Theatre in Troy, NY in late October. Check out our performance of Shotgun Blues here 

nprmusic has another recording from Mountain Stage!

Q&A with Béla & Abigail

Happy October! 

Thanks for submitting your questions to us on Facebook.  We picked our favorites and included the name of the person who submitted the question.  If your question was selected, we'll be in touch to send you a signed CD! 

Here we go… 

Abigail's answers:  

From Michael Trimble: Do you have to get seats for both banjos now when you fly?

We have to buy one for Béla's banjo on small planes. Mine is smaller and usually fits in the overhead easily. The trick is getting on early, and keeping it low profile when going past the ticket agents. Sometimes we still run into agents who simply don't want instruments on board. That's always a drag. We would have had a baby a long time ago, if we'd realized it would get us early boarding!

From Samuel Mccullough:  When are you coming over to Scotland?

When Phil Cunningham learns some new jokes. 

If you don't know Phil he's the finest accordion player in all of Scotland and he has his own TV show called The World Accordion To Phil. 

But seriously, we love Scotland, that's where we honeymooned in the Highlands. And we hope to be at Celtic Connections not this year but the next, if they'll have us!

From Robert Gault McClung: What is your approach to introducing music to Juno?

The poor guy is inundated with music constantly. He's got a penchant for dancing when we start songs, but within 30 or 40 seconds he's looking for a rock to chew on, or a ball to throw. He almost always claps when we stop though.

One of the great joys of our life is playing for him, and seeing him respond without pretense.  

Lately we've been pulling out old LPs and playing him our favorite albums.  He loves Paul Simon's Graceland, and anything from Uncle Earl.

From Eva Tree:  Has being a mom changed, informed, inspired your musical creative process?  I am a singer songwriter with 2 little kids and I have found it challenging to put my songwriters 'cap ' on.

I find it challenging too. Every day I wake up and I want to pour my energy into being there for Juno. And sometimes it's hard to see in the moment how songwriting fits in. I hear that as our little ones become more independent  it will feel more natural to return to a personal creative space.

I've been grateful to have Béla as a touchstone for me creatively in this time of learning how to be mom.

One  surprising result from having Juno is that I spend almost no time worrying about performing, and that's made it feel smoother than ever.

Photo by Amanda Kowalski 

From Brandon Joseph Munday:  Do you believe that music is the universal language that can bring the world together?

Music is one of the great meeting points. I hope that one day culture leads the conversation between different nations about what we want our world to look like. Why shouldn't beauty and harmony be taken seriously as top priorities for our global existence?

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Béla's answers:

From Erin Compton:  How did you 2 meet?

About 11 years ago my friend guitarist Russ Barenburg invited me to come play at the only square dance I've ever played in Nashville. Abby was there and she lit up the floor.

From Matt Pall:  Have you ever played "Dueling Banjos" together? 

We have not, but I coached Abby on it when she was preparing to play the song for the Queen of England for the Diamond Jubillee celebration. Abby performed "Dueling Banjos" with classical violinist David Garrett in one of the most bizarre performances of her (or my) careers. Check it out here. 

From Perry H Hull: I play Nashville Blues. I've always been drawn to the song. It's an instrumental that conveys sadness, without words. Question: what is another Dm song you enjoy playing?

We love playing Sally in The Garden on live shows, occasionally. It's a moody dark, odd, and very old fashioned tune. Dm all the way. Abby trails the melody, and I do whatever the heck I want.

From Bryan Flanagan: What age will you start teaching proper headband etiquette and situations?

It's never too early. 

From Jesse Houser:  When I saw you in Grass Valley, CA, Béla was doing some rather hushed vocal harmonies that really enriched the song (I think it was "Bring Me My Queen"). So Béla, do you ever sing on the recordings? Do you ever sing by yourself? It was moving to see both of you playing and singing together, sitting among your forest of banjos.

It had to be Banjo Picking Girl, as that's the only one I've done live so far. But in the studio, I boldly attempted to sing some harmony. You can hear it on Railroad and What'cha Gonna Do on our new CD. The last time I sang on a record was with New Grass Revival in 1990.

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Thanks again for all your support!  

New record is available now on iTunes, Amazon or Abigail's webstore!

Catch us on tour here: www.bit.ly/AbigailConcerts

www.abigailwashburn.com  www.belafleck.com 

Album art for the new record with @belafleckbanjo. So excited to share it with you guys!

Summer 2014 Newsletter

Bela and I are on the very final stages of completing our first ever duo record! The record is full of traditional and original material, only two banjos and vocals recorded live. We like to think that this two-banjo record has a pretty magical and unexpected feel to it. I know we’re both surprised by how full it sounds with just the two of us. I’m looking forward to hearing what you think.

I just finished a joyful, gut-splittingly funny two day Uncle Earl rehearsal with KC Groves, Rayna Gellert & Kristin Andreassen leading up to RockyGrass. We had a blast playing tunes and telling old “war stories” from the road. Can’t wait to take it to the stage next Saturday night in Lyons, CO. Major props to Planet Bluegrass and all the people of the town of Lyons for recovering the town and the festival site so quickly after the massively devastating flood last September. Check-out Juno producing an Uncle Earl video from the rehearsal, and thanks to my mother-in-law Barbara Paladino for spinning the table and Helen Soyster for helping Juno to ‘conduct’ the ladies.

Wish I could go one of these totally rad musical nature journeys that Kai is hosting in August!

Maybe you can go…?

I felt like I got to go to China right here in America on the National Mall in DC a few weeks ago when I participated in the smithsonian Folklife Festival. Mongolians, Qiang polyphonic singers, Hua-er performers; I got collaborate with all of them. My favorite moment was at the Pete Seeger tribute concert when the women and men from the Dimen Dong singing group agreed to perform with me doing both of our traditional versions of Coo Coo songs together. Listen here

..and THE WU-FORCE!

Chicago, Milwaukee… The Wu-Force is coming to your town! Wu Fei will be flying in from Beijing in mid-september to meet up with Kai and I to rehearse for sets at both the Chicago World Music Fest and Milwaukee. After spending a 6 weeks together this fall we’e excited to reunite and share some of the new sino-appalachian indie rock creativity.

If you want to know some more of my upcoming tour dates, you can click here or go to my website http://www.abigailwashburn.com/website/tour/

Uncle Earl Reunion & Life with Bela and Juno

So, we’ve got the coolest little bathtub for bathing Juno backstage… it’s a rubber ducky! Every adult that sees him in the tub first says, “That’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen” and then “I want an adult-sized rubber ducky bath tub!” We’ve turned every type of green room space into a baby spa and every inch of space on stage into a play area. Needless to say, life with Juno on the road fills every day with unexpected moments. Like… were you at the first show in Winston-Salem at SECCA where Juno came out for the encore and while Bela, and I sunk into the dramatic opening to "His Eye is On The Sparrow" Juno pulled the mic cable out of the mic and stuck it in his mouth? The audience gasped, and I realized I had to keep a closer eye on my baby boy! With the sound system ‘compromised’ we finished the song off mic in the middle of the stage, and it was a much better way to end the show after all.

Thanks to Ali Sperry for this photo backstage at the amazing Stuart’s Opera House in Nelsonville, OH, and for being our Juno caretaker on this last tour.  Here’s Ali playing with Juno side stage while Bela and I did our soundcheck at Jefferson Theatre in Charlottesville, VA.

We’re getting ready now to head out on five dates around the Southeast. I’m already starting to pack all the bits and pieces that add up to an embarrassing amount of stuff for caring for one little baby. And to add to the pile my Denton Bragg gourd banjo, Bela and I have been writing a few new songs and the gourd banjo just might make it out on stage.

I am also happy to announce that Bela and I will be playing DelFest at the end of May!

In addition to DelFest we also have a string of West Coast shows in May and a few in the Mid-Atlantic.   Click here for the full list of tour dates. 

Speaking of writing with Bela, we’re deep in the process of creating songs together. Yes, the music is only two banjos and some singing the whole way through. And Bela throws in some harmony here and there too, harkening back to his contribution to the power vocals in New Grass Revival.  We’re working hard to make sure every song sounds like a unique and sonically righteous blend of two banjos. Wish us luck!

Sitting on the back patio on an early spring day working through an arrangement before we head to the studio to record 

UNCLE EARL! I’ve been hoping the day would come when the core Uncle Earl band that I toured with for five years would come together and play again. Thanks to Rockgrass for instigating the reunion of Rayna Gellert, KC Groves, Kristin Andreassen and myself for the festival this summer. Currently we’re looking for rehearsal times to meet up in the same town for a few days to work up songs and revel in the old stories from the road. I’m incredibly excited to be immersed in g’earl power again! I would love to hear from you on facebook if you have any songs you’d particularly like to hear us do again.

     And as always thank YOU for making it possible for me to travel and share music as my life’s work.

APAP is the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, not a pap smear conference as Kai Welch insinuated last week.

January Letter 2014

The Wu-Force is happening NOW! Premiere NASHVILLE show tonight (January 9th)  this Thursday (January 9th) night at the High Watt! 

What is the Wu-Force? Click HERE to see our video trailer asking exactly that...  But this trailer is just a tease for a full-length video coming soon! 

Wu Fei flew in from Beijing late last week with her little girl Viola, and Kai makes the trek from East Nashville to the south side for rehearsals everyday.  My living room has been taken over by a guzheng, keys, guitars, banjos, trumpet and baby toys everywhere! Check out a video of our intense rehearsals here. 

The Wu-Force will perform at globalFEST Jan 12 in NYC. Then we will come back to Nashville and get hard at work writing new material and recording and we will have a 2nd Nashville show, February 3rd at the Basement, to show it off! Please come support both shows and see all the new Wu-Force forces at work! Looking forward to having good friend James Wallace and the Naked Light share the night with us at the High Watt.  El El will share the stage with us at the Basement. 

In addition to the Wu-Force performance at Globalfest this weekend I'm honored be a part of a special plenary session at the American Performing Arts Presenters Conference in NYC alongside the artistic awesomeness of Taylor Mac & Baratunde. 

Taylor Mac 

Baratunde

This holiday was special for a lot of reasons, mostly because it was Juno's first, but ALSO because of all the amazing holiday cards I got from all over the world in response to the momma-baby-santa card we sent out to all the folks who signed up on Facebook. Look out for this again next year. It just made me feel too good not to do it again. And BIG gratitude to Carissa Stolting, my management partner, aka Greez, and SueAnn Shiah for the wonderful idea and for making it happen… over 1000 cards went out!

Click HERE to see pics of the holiday cards. 

Right now I'm listening to little Juno squeal and play in his crib on the baby monitor, and looking out the window at the snow on the ground (yes, in Nashville, believe it or not!) and watching the bright red cardinals buzz about and fluff the snowflakes off their feathers and I'm counting my blessings for getting to share this life and music with you all. Thanks for making it possible!

web!  www.abigailwashburn.com

tour info!  www.bit.ly/AbigailShows

December Letter

Hello friends! It's hard to believe the big holiday season is here and 2013 is winding to a close. This year has changed my life more than any other -- December is a good time to pause and reflect. First of all, I had a baby named Juno. Secondly, Juno. Thirdly, Juno. Fourthly, Juno. Honestly, I don't think I can remember anything that happened before Juno!

But if I do a couple jumping jacks to shake off the sleepies and stir up the ol' pre-momma-brain-cells I can recall the past few years and how they have amped up my life's work and taken me down paths unexpected and challenging and groovy, like writing a theatre piece for Joe's Pub & NY Public, giving the commencement address at my alumn Colorado College, speaking at the TED convention in CA, speaking at the Kellogg Business School,  and dreaming up a US-China Folk Revival tour. And then there's all the music music music, touring City of Refuge all over the world with Kai Welch and the Village touring the Silk Road, the collaborations in China and  the beginning of The Wu-Force and now touring with my husband Bela Fleck. I don't know how to express my gratitude for the way this life keeps unfolding other than to say thank you. I hope I will find ways to continually give back to you.  I'm pretty wiggy-excited about Xmas stuff and now that I have Juno to share it with I"m afraid I've gone over the deep end. Proof of it will come to you in the shape of a special holiday card should you so choose to sign up for it. 

We've also created a new merchandise item...  How could we not make a baby onesie?

(click here to visit Abigail's store)

Juno is the perfect model- perfectly chubby all over! It's organic cotton and comfy, passed my momma test. My grandma June (Juno's namesake) et al had a family business called Rainbo; first a large building on the north side of Chicago that eventually became a rollerskating rink but the bigger part of their business was catalog sales of all things ice skating, roller skating or anything with wheels or blades that attach to your feet. I remember look forward to seeing the cover of the catalog every holiday because my cousins would be on the cover sporting the latest ice skates or sweatshirt. I feel like we're carrying on the family tradition.

Thank YOU for reading this email and for caring and for telling someone about what you like and support and for making the rippling rings of your intention bolster my life and work.

with love.

Abigail