Global Rhythms: Banj-O-Rama
featuring
Abigail Washburn
Friday, March 22, 2013, 8 - 10pm, $5 - $20
Town Hall Seattle -- in the Great Hall (enter on Eighth Avenue)
If American old-time music is about embracing earlier, simpler ways of
life and music-making, then Abigail Washburn is a bracing revelation to
that tradition. The singing, songwriting, Chinese banjo player pairs
venerable folk elements with far-flung sounds, and the results feel both
strangely familiar and unlike anything you've ever heard before.
Exhibit A:
Her album City of Refuge, where, tucked in among picked and
sung modal melodies, you'll find songs with catchy hooks and grooves -- and
even the playful pop phrase, "Hey, hey, hey."
Washburn, who also plays
the Chinese banjo -- and gave a moving 2012 TED talk on the connections she's
formed touring America and China with it -- heads a lineup of stellar and
diverse strummers in Town Hall's inaugural bow to the banjo, including
Kane Mathis, who plays the Mandinka kora, the direct antecedent to the
American banjo, and Mary Ohno, who plays the shamisen, the banjo's
Japanese cousin.
Presented by Town Hall as part of its Global Rhythms series.
Series media sponsorship provided by KBCS 91.3 FM and KEXP.
Advance tickets are $18; seniors/$17;
Town Hall members/$15; and students with ID/$10:
Town Hall Seattle
$20/$18/$17 at the door; $5 rush for students with ID 15 minutes before
showtime.
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