Abigail Washburn is a clawhammer-style banjo player and singer who blends folk and bluegrass tradition with an impressively global worldview. A fluent speaker of Mandarin, Washburn credits her years spent in China after college with her increased interest in the musical history and culture of her native United States. Along with her tenure in the all-female old-time quartet Uncle Earl, Washburn also fronts her own band, Abigail Washburn & the Sparrow Quartet, featuring progressive banjo star Bela Fleck, cellist Ben Sollee, and fiddler Casey Driessen. Fleck also produced Washburn's 2005 debut SONG OF THE TRAVELING DAUGHTER.