Good Refuge

Music on the Run

Abigail Washburn - City Of Refuge

This one must be driving radio program directors crazy. Every one but those who do playlists for college or public radio stations. Those dudes (or dudettes )take joy in stacking genres to give listeners whiplash.) Everyone is going: What does Abigail Washburn do? They gave it a shot. You'll find City Of Refuge in bluegrass or americana (by the way, what is americana anyway? Nuevo folk? Alt country punk? What? ) Yeah, Ms. Washburn is those bluegrass, americana and more. There's the obligatory banjo, fiddle and mandolin, and Washburn has a wonderful vibrato, burnished with an East Tennessee lilt (even though I think she's from near Chicago.)  There is some wonderful bluegrass here, but then on another cut, the fiddle morphs into a violin, the banjo echoes a harp, and jeez, is that a tuba playing a bass line? Then another cut that sounds as if it's channeling Fleetwood Mac followed by a hard-as-lard bluegrass/appalachian number where she pushes the vocals right out of her sinuses. Music from a mason jar.  Yeah, that's getting it done, old school country style. And it's all good, because it's all interesting and it's all unpredictable.

That makes it a good companion on the run too. The rhythms are strong, and the songs are so catchy and unpredictable that your interest never drifts too far from the music. Besides, just thinking of all those radio folks who make playlists so predictable you can set a clock by them, agonizing over how to categorize Washburn, gives me a giggle.