Bluegrass Music with a Chinese Accent

Abigail Washburn is sitting on a bench in New York's Battery Park City on a recent afternoon, the Statue of Liberty standing at attention just beyond the water's edge. Tourists stop to snap photos, buy trinkets, get panhandled. Washburn is herself a fellow traveler: her touring band, the Sparrow Quartet, will play a set of free old-timey music in about an hour--Americana for the masses at just about the spot where so many got their first view of America. So it proves almost too poetic when five new- timey Chinese businessmen in natty tailored suits drift by. Washburn, who excels at putting herself in uncomfortable situations, approaches them--every inch an American girl under a tumble of curls--and asks, in Mandarin, “Where in China are you from?" The alpha suit in the group, briefly startled, answers: “Beijing." Washburn continues, in Chinese, “I've been to Beijing so many times. I'm a musician and we're performing here tonight." He waves, edging away. “We'll come back."

They don't. Their loss. The Sparrow Quartet's album is perhaps the most weirdly wonderful to land at the top of the bluegrass charts. A student of Chinese culture and American- roots music, Washburn has combined her passions to create a gorgeous, joyful new sound. “Banjo Pickin' Girl," a traditional bluegrass ditty, sits side by side with “Taiyang Chulai," a folk song from Sichuan province, sung in Mandarin. Interspersed throughout are original tunes that both bridge the gap between the two distinct styles and, surprisingly, shine a light on their similarities. “Kangding Qinnge/Old Timey Dance Party," another Sichuan song, is sung over a feverish Appalachian arrangement. Propulsive, funky jams give way to mini-suites with classical roots. Washburn has taken her band through Tibet--a significant first for an American cultural act given that at least seven Tibetan cultural figures have been arrested in recent months, including a folk singer, with no warning or formal charges. Next month her quartet is slated to perform its genre- melding music on the world's biggest stage: the Olympics.