Abigail Washburn

This is Ms Washburn’s third solo effort and she really has hit the mark with 11 songs that have a haunting and soulful resonance. She pkays banjo in the old-time style, ‘clawhammer’, and the result is like a waterfall of banjo notes with a strong rhythmic side.
Her voice is simply beautiful with little in the way of ‘production’ needed – in some respects she reminds me of Kate Bush – and the production from Tucker Martine brings out the inherent depths of the music without washing over her voice.

The songs have been co-written with Kai Welch and the combination of the three of them has ensured the music is lush when it needs to be and raw at other times. Assistance from the likes of Bill Frisell on guitar, Rayna Gellert on fiddle and master Wu Fei on the Chinese zither (Guzheng) all add to the quality of the playing but as with all the best recordings the songs come first; doesn’t matter how strong the players are, if the songs aren’t there there ain’t no music.

The theme all through the album is about wandering to find the ‘City of Refuge’ and she takes in all forms in the journey. She sets the thematic tone right from the title track “You gotta leave your home, rattle all your bones and shake off your chains,” and the different styles seem to represent a lot of different vision of the stops on the way – she takes in some old fashioned picking, lush county, eastern mysticism and some wonderful gospel-tinged solo singing. The moments when Rayna Gellert draws out a long drone on the fiddle almost always seem to usher in something special, especially on ‘Dream of Nectar’ with its slow and dirge like tone and wondrous horns filling out the sky in the music.
‘Divine Bell’ is the most straightforward song on the album – a lovely piece of Gospel done Appalachian style with an uplifting chorus and some brilliant fiddle.

Playing this album as a background task is a waste of time – it needs close listening and it deserves full attention. It really is a remarkable piece of work.