Via TED: "TED Fellow Abigail Washburn wanted to be a lawyer improving US-China relations -- until she picked up a banjo. She tells a moving story of the remarkable connections she's formed touring across the United States and China while playing that banjo and singing in Chinese." more ›

Afterquake, the project by Abigail Washburn and Dave Liang of the Shanghai Restoration Project, has released a new video as part of their ongoing efforts to raise money for those still struggling with the Sichuan earthquake's aftermath. more ›

We posted about Abigail Washburn and Dave Liang of the Shanghai Restoration Project's album of songs about Sichuan, Afterquake. The project hopes to raise awareness of the ongoing efforts to rehouse people effected by the earthquake and a portion of the proceeds from the EP will go to Sichuan Quake Relief. more ›

American folk singer Abigail Washburn has teamed up with Shanghai Restoration Project producer Dave Liang to create Afterquake, an album of songs put together in aid of Sichuan Quake Relief. more ›

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Not sure what the seating arrangement will be like at JZ, but we got to Cotton Club around three hours early because we are losers were told we couldn't reserve seats ahead of time. So we chose a booth that looked nice and sat down. Moments later, we were told we couldn't sit there -- because that table was reserved. Huh? (There wasn't a "reserved" sign on the table.) We eventually sorted things out with the bar's super-cool, super-laid-back owner (sorry for raising our voice, Greg!) and we got our booth, but just warning you to be prepared for anything, as is generally the rule in China. more ›

• A book talk by Paul French at Glamour Bar: Access Asia's Paul French is a reluctant Shanghaiist reader who actually made an appearance at our recent Halloween party. Perhaps more importantly, he is an author who puts out about a book a year. His latest, Carl Crow: A Tough Old China Hand, is out now from Hong Kong University Press. He'll be talking about the book at Glamour Bar tomorrow at 4 pm. Here's a bit about the book and Mr. Crow: more ›

Another week, another edition of Shanghaiist Reads. SH and Shanghai Talk are on the clock … more ›

Jon Campbell, a super nice bearded guy who we met at the Abigail Washburn/Bela Fleck gig in November, writes a column called "Foreign Devil" for the American music website PopMatters. A couple of weeks ago, he posted a story about Top Floor Circus (顶楼马戏团), a folk-cum-punk band from Shanghai. "The band was from Shanghai, for goodness' sake," Campbell writes, "and everyone in Beijing knows that good rock bands come from anywhere but Shanghai." Yes, Campbell is based in Beijing, where this gig took place. more ›

Strumming her banjo and singing in English and Chinese, Abigail Washburn performed traditional American music last night at the Cotton Club with three esteemed bandmates. Playing a mix of bluegrass, country, gospel and old-time music, the former Beijing resident was joined by eight-time Grammy winner Béla Fleck who is considered the best banjo player in the world. With Casey Driessen on the fiddle and Ben Sollee on the cello, the packed club audience enjoyed a musical treat of a quality rarely found in Shanghai. more ›

Last weekend was quite a stunner, what with Japanese punk, Korean horror-movie music, and a new addition to the C's revival (better than "200 people turning up to DKD wearing mp3 players and dancing in their own heads all night"); but we live in the city where 酒不醉人人自醉 ("people, rather than alcohol, enebriate") and with a population of 13 million, the party doesn't stop so easily. Read on for this week's contributions to our city's tradition of bacchanalia. more ›