Playing the banjo in Chinese

Little Byrd posted an entry entitled 'The universe, the cosmos - do you believe?' Now, I personally don't read my daily horoscope but I do believe the universe sends messages. I would consider myself a fairly religious person.

As I was running errands this afternoon, I decided that I needed to add more folk and bluegrass music to our CD collection. I was literally thinking that I should do a post where I ask for music recommendations in this genre {you know who you are!} and then I turned on the radio.

Chicago Public Radio to be exact and caught most of the program The Story.

Abigail Washburn and her group The Sparrow Quartet are currently in Beijing. The group was invited by the Chinese government to be "cultural Olympiads." For Abigail, it was an invitation to return to a country she loves.

China has been Abigail's life passion since she was in college, but before she set off to Beijing to study law, she wanted to spend time learning something quintessentially American. Her foray into traditional American music took her down a rather unexpected road. She talks with guest host Aaron Henkin about how she now uses music to accomplish a longtime goal - building understanding between China and the U.S. - and how the Chinese language fits in surprisingly well with the pluck of the banjo.

If this interests you, listen to the podcast (Wednesday, August 13). I really happened to enjoy it- good timing.