TED2012
Abigail Washburn: Building US-China relations ... by banjo
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Abigail Washburn wanted to be a lawyer improving US-China relations -- until she picked up a banjo. The TED Fellow tells a moving story of the connections she's formed touring across the US and China while playing that banjo and singing in Chinese.
Abigail Washburn - Clawhammer banjo player
Abigail Washburn pairs venerable folk elements with far-flung sounds, creating results that feel both strangely familiar and unlike anything anybody's ever heard before. Full bio
Abigail Washburn pairs venerable folk elements with far-flung sounds, creating results that feel both strangely familiar and unlike anything anybody's ever heard before. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
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If you had caught me straight out of college
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in the halls of the Vermont State House
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where I was a lobbyist in training
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and asked me what I was going to do with my life,
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I would have told you
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that I'd just passed the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi,
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the Chinese equivalency exam,
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and I was going to go study law in Beijing,
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and I was going to improve U.S.-China relations
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through top-down policy changes
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and judicial system reforms.
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(Laughter)
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(Applause)
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I had a plan,
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and I never ever thought
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it would have anything to do
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with the banjo.
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Little did I know
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what a huge impact it would have on me one night
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when I was at a party
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and I heard a sound coming out of a record player
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in the corner of a room.
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And it was Doc Watson
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singing and playing "Shady Grove."
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♫ Shady Grove, my little love ♫
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♫ Shady Grove, my darlin' ♫
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♫ Shady Grove, my little love ♫
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♫ Going back to Harlan ♫
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That sound was just so beautiful,
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the sound of Doc's voice
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and the rippling groove of the banjo.
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And after being totally and completely obsessed
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with the mammoth richness and history
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of Chinese culture,
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it was like this total relief
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to hear something so truly American
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and so truly awesome.
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I knew I had to take a banjo with me to China.
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So before going to law school in China
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I bought a banjo, I threw it in my little red truck
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and I traveled down through Appalachia
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and I learned a bunch of old American songs,
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and I ended up in Kentucky
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at the International Bluegrass Music Association Convention.
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And I was sitting in a hallway one night
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and a couple girls came up to me.
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And they said, "Hey, do you want to jam?"
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And I was like, "Sure."
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So I picked up my banjo
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and I nervously played four songs that I actually knew with them.
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And a record executive walked up to me
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and invited me to Nashville, Tennessee to make a record.
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(Laughter)
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It's been eight years,
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and I can tell you that I didn't go to China to become a lawyer.
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In fact, I went to Nashville.
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And after a few months I was writing songs.
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And the first song I wrote was in English,
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and the second one was in Chinese.
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(Music)
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[Chinese]
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Outside your door the world is waiting.
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Inside your heart a voice is calling.
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The four corners of the world are watching,
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so travel daughter, travel.
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Go get it, girl.
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(Applause)
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It's really been eight years since that fated night in Kentucky.
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And I've played thousands of shows.
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And I've collaborated
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with so many incredible, inspirational musicians around the world.
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And I see the power of music.
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I see the power of music
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to connect cultures.
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I see it when I stand on a stage
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in a bluegrass festival in east Virginia
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and I look out at the sea of lawn chairs
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and I bust out into a song in Chinese.
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[Chinese]
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And everybody's eyes just pop wide open
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like it's going to fall out of their heads.
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And they're like, "What's that girl doing?"
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And then they come up to me after the show
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and they all have a story.
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They all come up and they're like,
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"You know, my aunt's sister's babysitter's dog's chicken went to China
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and adopted a girl."
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And I tell you what, it like everybody's got a story.
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It's just incredible.
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And then I go to China
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and I stand on a stage at a university
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and I bust out into a song in Chinese
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and everybody sings along
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and they roar with delight
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at this girl
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with the hair and the instrument,
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and she's singing their music.
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And I see, even more importantly,
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the power of music to connect hearts.
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Like the time I was in Sichuan Province
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and I was singing for kids in relocation schools
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in the earthquake disaster zone.
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And this little girl comes up to me.
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[Chinese]
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"Big sister Wong,"
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Washburn, Wong, same difference.
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"Big sister Wong, can I sing you a song
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that my mom sang for me
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before she was swallowed in the earthquake?"
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And I sat down,
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she sat on my lap.
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She started singing her song.
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And the warmth of her body
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and the tears rolling down her rosy cheeks,
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and I started to cry.
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And the light that shone off of her eyes
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was a place I could have stayed forever.
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And in that moment, we weren't our American selves,
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we weren't our Chinese selves,
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we were just mortals
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sitting together in that light that keeps us here.
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I want to dwell in that light
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with you and with everyone.
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And I know U.S.-China relations
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doesn't need another lawyer.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)
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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Abigail Washburn - Clawhammer banjo playerAbigail Washburn pairs venerable folk elements with far-flung sounds, creating results that feel both strangely familiar and unlike anything anybody's ever heard before.
Why you should listen
If American old-time music is about adopting earlier, simpler ways of life and music-making, Abigail has proven herself a bracing challenge to that tradition. A singing, songwriting, Chinese-speaking, Illinois-born, Nashville-based, clawhammer banjo player, Abigail is every bit as interested in the present and the future as she is in the past, and every bit as attuned to the global as she is to the local. From the recovery zones of earthquake-shaken Sichuan to the hollers of Tennessee, she pairs venerable folk elements with far-flung sounds, and the results feel both strangely familiar and unlike anything anybody’s ever heard before. To put it another way, she changes what seems possible.
More profile about the speakerAbigail Washburn | Speaker | TED.com