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MojoApr 4, 2011Standouts include Burn Through, a Springsteenesque tale of blue-collar grit, and the haunting Corner Girl, where a lonely kid opens up her world like a plant unfurling. [Feb 2011, p.109]
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Mar 17, 2011Filled with a brand of progressive folk music unlike anything you've ever heard, it crackles, sways, and whines, breaking through barriers we didn't know existed while creating a listening experience that's spellbinding.
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Mar 3, 2011Throughout the record, Washburn stays in her territory and lets her collaborators respond from theirs. This is not a bid for relevance or wider appeal, nor is it a betrayal of her traditional roots; it's a conversation. And it's a conversation that gets interesting.
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Feb 24, 2011It's a little too polished for the Oh Brother... crowd, but fans of Gillian Welch and Alison Krauss should take note.
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Feb 18, 2011It won't be remembered for long, but in 40 minutes the album offers an amorous walk through a woman's keen strength in a style of music that will never sound dated.
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Feb 1, 2011It probably wasn't her intention, but Washburn ended up making a modern classic, a folk album for people who claim they don't like a such thing.
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Feb 1, 2011She's created a visionary American music that extends its traditions as it embraces others, free of borderlines. City of Refuge shines from West to East, from South to North--and beyond.
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Feb 1, 2011In a word, Abigail Washburn's City of Refuge shines. It is a folk-pastiche that draws on all of Washburn's past successes and crafts them together into a lovely and sometimes mysterious work of art.
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Feb 1, 2011An original, accessible and highly recommended purchase.
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Feb 1, 2011Produced by Decemberists collaborator Tucker Martine, City of Refuge frames Washburn's smoky-sexy vocals with lush string-band arrangements that make the occasional touch of Chinese zither seem natural.
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Feb 1, 2011Though fans of her exotica may miss her outlining connections between Earl Scruggs and Chinese pipa standards, City of Refuge is the best kind of crossover--one that anyone can find comfort in.
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Feb 1, 2011City Of Refuge is an album which manages to be raw yet transcendental and simple yet layered. Inquisitive ears should find plenty of interest here.
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Feb 1, 2011It's too early to start drafting up those Best of 2011 lists, but City of Refuge deserves to be shortlisted as one of the stronger folk albums in recent memory.
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