Abigail Washburn

Washburn was born in Evanston, Illinois, and spent her elementary and junior high school years in a suburb of Washington, D.C. After attending high school in Minnesota, she enrolled at Colorado College, where she was the school's first East Asian studies major. She sang backup in local bar bands, but otherwise held no musical ambitions. She learned Mandarin during the summers in intensive programs at Middlebury College, Vermont, and visited China in 1996 for the first time. Washburn returned in 1999 with the goal of getting her law degree and practicing international law in Beijing to improve U.S.-Chinese relations. She picked up Mandarin faster than she imagined possible, and on that second trip, fell in love with Chinese culture. Wanting to bring something of her own country to China, she bought a banjo and learned, via a beloved teacher, many Chinese songs and poems that she transposed for the instrument. She also decided to explore the rich heritage of folk and bluegrass music. Mastery of the instrument took years. There were extended periods where she didn't touch the banjo. After returning to Vermont, and working as an activist, she was asked by her friends the Cleary Bros. Band to tour with them. They had lost their banjo player before a tour of Alaska. Blowing the dust off her instrument, Washburn began a crash course in learning to play well enough to sit in, and she eventually joined the Cleary Bros. Band.

From 🇺🇸 United States