Whenever I visited China in the past, the relationships always felt superficial; there was no time where I felt those moments of conflict and delight that make you feel close to another person. But since I started touring there in 2004, I would always collaborate with local musicians, and that opened up a new level of intimacy.

Abigail Washburn

You have to try things you're really afraid of, even if you pee yourself a little bit.

Abigail Washburn

I believe in the old, because it shows us where we come from - where our souls have risen from. And I believe in the new, because it gives us the opportunity to create who we are becoming.

Abigail Washburn

I played piano and was always in the choir. I tried to play flute because all the pretty girls played flute.

Abigail Washburn

I reside in a new colony for the Chinese-singing banjo player, with a population of one. At least I have something I have to do with my life.

Abigail Washburn

I feel like the one insight that's extremely comforting to me about the world is that we all share the same pool of emotion that we draw from.

Abigail Washburn

I had no intention of becoming a performer, and yet under miraculous circumstances I was brought into the music industry fold. If divine powers hadn't intervened, I'd still be living in China working in some area of Sino-American comparative law.

Abigail Washburn

I do see music as complete refuge. It's a universal home, complete common ground between everyone; it comes from a place that has no nation and no boundaries around it.

Abigail Washburn

I would say I've always lived creativity, but now I - I do it with an intention that's got a completely different power.

Abigail Washburn

In China, I realized that if you visit often enough and learn the language, you will be assimilated, but you'll still be kept at arm's length; you'll always be looked on as a foreigner.

Abigail Washburn

One of my favorite albums in the world is Bruce Springsteen's 'Nebraska.' Each song has this very distinct character who has something profound to say.

Abigail Washburn

In some ways, in the U.S. we don't know how to be. I think in a lot of ways America is about liberation and about change and progressive human relations. And because of that, I feel like that we're confused about who we're supposed to be and what it is that's supposed to satisfy us and make us feel fulfilled.

Abigail Washburn

'Halo' I wrote with my grandpa in his nursing home. When I went to visit him, he'd often comment on my halo. But of course, I couldn't see. And he always - he had pictures of Jesus with these beautiful halos. And so I asked him if he'd write a song with me about Jesus' halo.

Abigail Washburn

In some ways, my most comfortable feeling has been that of being an outsider coming in, but over the years I've tired of that and I'm ready to feel at home. That's what music gives me: a feeling of absolute home.

Abigail Washburn

China was the first time I truly felt like an outsider. I fell in love with the process of trying to become intimate with the culture.

Abigail Washburn

I'm, I guess you could say, the Chinese-speaking, banjo-picking girl.

Abigail Washburn

My parents played the radio, but music was never an obsession or something that I thought I could call a career.

Abigail Washburn

I do get around. Geographically, that is.

Abigail Washburn

When I first started playing the banjo and miraculously fell into a record deal in Nashville, TN, there was a period when I didn't go to China. It hurt. Like a pain in my gut... that pain you feel when you know it's time to connect with your parents or your God or your child or your past or your future... and you don't do it.

Abigail Washburn

I was born in Evanston, Illinois. I spent my elementary and part of my junior high school years in a D.C. suburb. And then I spent my high school years in Minnesota. And then I spent my college years in Colorado. And then I spent some time living in China. And then I spent three years in Vermont before moving down to Nashville.

Abigail Washburn

Abigail Washburn Quotes

You have to try things you're really afraid of, even if you pee yourself a little bit.

I believe in the old, because it shows us where we come from - where our souls have risen from. And I believe in the new, because it gives us the opportunity to create who we are becoming.

I played piano and was always in the choir. I tried to play flute because all the pretty girls played flute.

I reside in a new colony for the Chinese-singing banjo player, with a population of one. At least I have something I have to do with my life.

I feel like the one insight that's extremely comforting to me about the world is that we all share the same pool of emotion that we draw from.

I had no intention of becoming a performer, and yet under miraculous circumstances I was brought into the music industry fold. If divine powers hadn't intervened, I'd still be living in China working in some area of Sino-American comparative law.

I do see music as complete refuge. It's a universal home, complete common ground between everyone; it comes from a place that has no nation and no boundaries around it.

I would say I've always lived creativity, but now I - I do it with an intention that's got a completely different power.

In China, I realized that if you visit often enough and learn the language, you will be assimilated, but you'll still be kept at arm's length; you'll always be looked on as a foreigner.

One of my favorite albums in the world is Bruce Springsteen's 'Nebraska.' Each song has this very distinct character who has something profound to say.

'Halo' I wrote with my grandpa in his nursing home. When I went to visit him, he'd often comment on my halo. But of course, I couldn't see. And he always - he had pictures of Jesus with these beautiful halos. And so I asked him if he'd write a song with me about Jesus' halo.

In some ways, my most comfortable feeling has been that of being an outsider coming in, but over the years I've tired of that and I'm ready to feel at home. That's what music gives me: a feeling of absolute home.

China was the first time I truly felt like an outsider. I fell in love with the process of trying to become intimate with the culture.

I'm, I guess you could say, the Chinese-speaking, banjo-picking girl.

My parents played the radio, but music was never an obsession or something that I thought I could call a career.

I do get around. Geographically, that is.