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Any of you who also subscribe to the Kenyon Chinese list will be seeing
this info (slightly re-edited) twice...but what the heck! It's sort of
language-related.
I've been telling all of my friends about a young lady named Abigail
Washburn who plays clawhammer banjo and sings in both Mandarin and
English. I'll be going to see her live this coming Saturday at Poor
David's Pub in Dallas. Take a look at the following links, which include
two NPR interviews with her.
<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5049815>
< www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4840756">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4840756>
< www.amazon.com/Song-Traveling-Daughter/dp/B0009X7704/ref=sr_11_1/104-5289010-4503908?ie=UTF8">http://www.amazon.com/Song-Traveling-Daughter/dp/B0009X7704/ref=sr_11_1/104-5289010-4503908?ie=UTF8>
< www.abigailwashburn.com/">http://www.abigailwashburn.com/> (especially the Press link)
I've been doing something like that for over 40 years (though not nearly
so well), so it doesn't seem that unusual to me. What's different from
me is that she began with Chinese language studies and trips to China,
and took up the banjo and Old-Timey music later, while I studied Chinese
and went to Taiwan several years after getting into American folk and
Old-Timey music.
Most Spanish students probably wouldn't find the idea of doing serious
singing in Spanish all that intimidating. My college friends and I, none
of whom spoke much Spanish, sang a fair number of Mexican and other
Spanish-language songs, but I had never run into a non-native speaker of
Mandarin doing such a thing until my friends, Dave and Jo Hess (although
Jo *was* a native speaker), and I started doing it Taiwan in the mid
'60s with banjo, 12-string guitar, and string bass (played by a young
soldier named Tim, last name lost and gone forever). We performed at the
Air Force Officers' Club, the Taipei American School, on Dave's AFRT
music show, and at some kind of international wingding in Taipei (where
Tim got heavily involved with the daughter of the Brazilian ambassador).
That was the last I'd seen of that kind of thing--until now.
I'm sure everyone will be able to judge how good her voice is. I can
also tell you that she is a seriously talented clawhammer player,
too--as clear, clean, and smooth as I've ever heard in all these decades
of listening.
If any of y'all actually like Old-Timey music, take a look at Abigail
performing with her group, Uncle Earl. Click the second link at
< www.uncleearl.net/multimedia.htm">http://www.uncleearl.net/multimedia.htm> to see them perform at at the
Kennedy Center. She does one Old-Timey song with some Mandarin verses there.
--
Mike Wright
www.raccoonbend.com">http://www.raccoonbend.com
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