Gig review: Tim O' Brien/Abigail Washburn

Published on Wednesday 26 January 2011 18:44

TIM O'BRIEN / ABIGAIL WASHBURN OLD FRUITMARKET, GLASGOW ****

THE US singer and banjo player Abigail Washburn has previously been at Celtic Connections with the all-girl stringband Uncle Earl, then with her own Appalachian/Chinese outfit The Sparrow Quartet. Back under her own name this year, she was mainly touting her 2010 album City of Refuge, an arresting, carefully crafted merger of old-time and indie stylings, co-authored with pop songwriter Kai Welch. With imaginative accompaniment from her band – on twin fiddles, guitar, double bass, keyboards, drums and backing vocals – the songs ranged from a squally, suitably menacing murder ballad in which the traditional female victim turns the tables, to a hauntingly delicate, Chinese-tinged meditation on immigrant experience.

US roots maestro Tim O'Brien's Celtic connection is plain to see, and it was equally plain to see how happy he is to have made such a home from home at this festival. "It's like coming into a war-zone," he said cheerfully, having been well stuck into the small-hours craic for several nights already. "You can't sleep!"

Despite this, he sounded razor-sharp and daisy-fresh throughout his 90-minute set, flanked by the crack Nashville team of fiddle tornado Stuart Duncan, guitarist Bryan Sutton and double bassist Mike Bub.

O'Brien's extraordinarily fluent mandolin prowess – alternated with turns on fiddle and banjo, and matched by his colleagues' mastery in their own departments – together with his rugged, rough-hewn, yet intensely lyrical singing, shone out from a seamlessly varied mix of traditional, vintage and original material, richly imbued with the palpable pleasure behind the performance.