A Musical Treat

bela fleck and abigail washburn
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I am one lucky girl to be in Guangzhou, China tonight. The International school where our hosts, Leah and Don teach, is a consular school so on occasion they are invited to functions put on by the consulate. Tonight we were invited to see Abigail Washburn and The Sparrow Quartet. What this means is that about 75 people gathered in the lobby of an apartment complex to see Abigail Washburn, Bela Fleck, Casey Driessen, and Ben Sollee, and I was one of them.

When we arrived no one was sitting yet so we took seats in the front row. A less than tactful woman who was apparently organizing the event asked us where we were from, our hosts said they taught at the International School, and she said, “well some important people are coming so…” We got the picture that we were relegated to the back row. Luckily there were only three rows of chairs so we still had excellent seats, there was no way we could not have.

ben sollee
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The show was incredible- all four are amazing musicians and they each have their own individual style. Hearing these American musicians perform traditional Chinese songs with their own twist was mind-blowing. Abigail Washburn has a beautiful voice, no matter what language she is singing in and to hear traditional American folk songs (Little Birdie), sung partially in Chinese was stunning. I had goosebumps throughout the whole thing.

When the show was over everyone was mingling and I approached Abigail to thank her. She was very sweet and asked me about my travels- she has done some traveling herself. When she was swept away by someone else we were all standing there and Bela Fleck came right up to us and introduced himself. What a cool guy!! We talked about his Africa project, he spent some time there meeting African musicians (the banjo is originally from Africa), and he is planning to make a movie. We chatted about other things, he was interested to know what we do- a very sincere and kind man, who also happens to be a hell of a musician! As I was signing up for the email list and the crowd was thinning out Abigail, Casey Dreissen (crazy, cool, funky fiddle player), and Ben Sollee, the cellist, came over to where we were and chatted us up some more. I think that the musicians were probably just relieved to meet some people their age! Almost everyone else there were “important” people, in suits and a little bit stuffy, so I can imagine we were a breath of fresh air.

casey driessen
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So now I have a new highlight- what a trip to be in this random city and get such a musical treat. I took pictures (unfortunately the back of the consular general’s balding head is in most of them) and almost 1 GB of video, those will come later (not the video, sorry- too big).