Once in a while, you find yourself gobsmacked by a totally unsuspecting cultural experience. When James Wallace, a Nashville-based musician who I met in Beijing way-back-when, invited me to a concert he was playing in, I was more than happy to drop by and see an old friend. What I didn’t expect was an astonishing show combining traditional Chinese and Mongolian instruments with some of the finest bluegrass and Americana on either side of the Pacific.
The headliner was Abigail Washburn, an amazing artists who’s made the world hear just how sweet Chinese bluegrass can sound. Abigail plays a range of instruments and carries songs in such a strong, smoky voice in both Chinese and English. What’s most incredible, though, is not her considerable musical talent, but her ear for bringing together seemingly incompatible sounds to create an unexpected fusion of Chinese and American musical traditions. When a Chinese musician went to town on the pipa, I realized for the first time that this instrument (that I’d formerly thought of as just vaguely whiney) sounds like the fiercest, most badass banjo in town.
Charmed as we were by Abigail, James, and conspirator Kai Welch’s renditions of old American fare with some Chinese instrumental interludes, I was totally blown away by the introduction of the Mongolian rock bang, Hanggai. I know: Mongolian. Rock. Band. We were skeptical, but it was rad, you guys. They wore fantastically pointy hats and with instruments with such names as the “horse head fiddle” and “Tobshuur,” as well as electric guitars, bass, and drums, totally rock on with their frocks on. (Observe frocks below.) The whole company brought the house down with Mongolian and American drinking songs–they were clearly having a great time.
What I found so inspiring about the whole show was not just the obvious skill of the musicians, but the enthusiasm they showed for doing something new, something innovative, something beloved. I’m no musician (apart from my unfortunately well-documented bongo skillz…Black Yak Band, you were all there in my heart) and no informed connoisseur, but I know when I’ve seen an amazing show and I left the concert feeling good about life. I feel like seeking out these experiences–those that leave you feeling colorful and energized and even nostalgic–is especially important in Beijing, where life can fall into grayness or sameness quite unexpectedly, and this show was enough to inspire ridiculous cliches about art and inspiration and how, at the end of the day, a banjo and a pipa and a Chinese song and an American song can do the trick to make life that much better.
This entry was written by , posted on December 19, 2009 at 10:03 pm, filed under adventures, art, beijing and tagged abigail washburn, beijing, hanggai, music, yugong yishan. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.