© 2023 KZYX
redwood forest background
Mendocino County Public Broadcasting
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Available On Air Stations
Due to CalFire work at our primary transmission site, we will be experiencing periodic outages lasting approx. 30 minutes on various days of the week. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Abigail Washburn: Giving Up China For The Banjo

Abigail Washburn's second album, City of Refuge, almost never came to be. She'd never much seen herself as a musician, and after she finished her schooling in Colorado, she all but committed herself to a life practicing law in China.

Washburn says that after a transformative six-month stay there, she returned home and packed her bags for a new life in Beijing.

But as luck would have it, her growing fascination with learning the banjo turned into a recording career — and changed her career path forever. Weekend All Things Considered guest host Linda Wertheimer recently spoke with Washburn about her strange career path, her evolution as a songwriter and her marriage to banjo legend Bela Fleck. You can hear the interview at the top of the page.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

NPR Staff