Abby the Spoon Lady (born October 29, 1981 in

Wichita, Kansas Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had ...

), born Abby Roach, is an American musician, former radio personality, and free speech activist. Her music focuses on the American roots genre. Spoon Lady riding freight trains

History

Abby first started street performing and

busking Street performance or busking is the act of performing in public places for gratuities. In many countries, the rewards are generally in the form of money but other gratuities such as food, drink or gifts may be given. Street performance is pr ...

as a means to make money traveling across the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, primarily hopping freight trains. She taught herself to play the spoons and traveled all over the

by hitchhiking and railroad. She states that landing in

Asheville, North Carolina Asheville ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Buncombe County, North Carolina. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the state's 11th-most populous cit ...

, was completely an accident and that she took the wrong train. Today she hosts storytelling events where she discusses the lifestyle of the American hobo. She spent a good amount of her time traveling recording the stories, interviews and songs of other American travelers. Abby is an advocate for

street performance Street performance or busking is the act of performing in public places for gratuities. In many countries, the rewards are generally in the form of money but other gratuities such as food, drink or gifts may be given. Street performance is pr ...

and

free speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The rights, right to freedom of expression has been ...

. In 2014, she was instrumental in developing a group called the Asheville Buskers Collective which advocates for street performance within the city of

. She also recorded buskers through a local Asheville program called ''Busker Broadcast'', which included interviews and songs of travelers passing through Asheville. In 2012, she was filmed in the horror film ''

Jug Face ''Jug Face'' is a 2013 American horror film written and directed by Chad Crawford Kinkle and starring Sean Bridgers, Lauren Ashley Carter, Larry Fessenden, Sean Young and Daniel Manche. The story follows a teen (Carter), who is pregnant with her ...

'' playing spoons, and in 2015 she was filmed for ''Buskin' Blues'', a documentary about the

scene in Asheville. In 2019, Abby made the decision to leave the area and return to her native Kansas. She cited the transformation of Asheville into a high-end tourist attraction, as the primary motivating factor:

"Since the tourism boom, the majority of our street performers are making half as much as before the tourism boom," she said. Roach said the final straw came Tuesday night, when city leaders approved a measure to turn the historic
Flatiron Building The Flatiron Building, originally the Fuller Building, is a triangular 22-story, steel-framed landmarked building at 175 Fifth Avenue in the eponymous Flatiron District neighborhood of the Boroughs of New York City, borough of Manhattan in New ...
, a favorite location for street performers, into a high-end hotel. " Responsible tourism needs to happen, making sure the locals are taken care of. If you have a giant room full of people begging you not to approve a hotel, then you don't approve it," Roach said, adding the Asheville she knew and loved no longer exists. "There's been a good amount of street performers who have wanted to create an Asheville home base and couldn't because they could never find anywhere to live. So, it's stopping the flow of new art coming in." Roach said, while she will always have a connection to Asheville, she will head back to Wichita, Kansas, where she can pursue her creative passions.

Radio

Abby the Spoon Lady hosted a radio show on WSFM-LP in

called ''Busker Broadcast'', which centered around

and public space law.

Genre

Her repertoire consists of a mix of

Americana Americana may refer to: *Americana (music), a genre or style of American music *Americana (culture), artifacts of the culture of the United States Film, radio and television * ''Americana'' (1992 TV series), a documentary series presented by J ...

, early

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

ragtime Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that flourished from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers such as Scott ...

for string instruments,

country blues Country blues (also folk blues, rural blues, backwoods blues, or downhome blues) is one of the earliest forms of blues music. The mainly solo vocal with acoustic fingerstyle guitar accompaniment developed in the rural Southern United States in t ...

jug band A jug band is a band employing a jug player and a mix of conventional and homemade instruments. These homemade instruments are ordinary objects adapted to or modified for making sound, like the washtub bass, washboard, spoons, bones, stovepipe, ...

Western swing Western swing music is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the Western United States, West and Southern United States, South among the region's Western music (North America), Western string bands. It is dan ...

Vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

, and Appalachian folk.

Influences

Musicians that have influenced her include

Artis the Spoonman Artis, known professionally as Artis the Spoonman (born October 3, 1948), is an American street performer and musician from Seattle, Washington, who uses spoons as a musical instrument. He frequents the Pike Place Market accompanying singer/so ...

Jimmie Rodgers James Charles Rodgers (September 8, 1897 – May 26, 1933) was an American singer-songwriter and musician who rose to popularity in the late 1920s. Widely regarded as "the Father of Country Music", he is best known for his distinctive rhythmi ...

Hank Williams Hank Williams (born Hiram Williams; September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. Regarded as one of the most significant and influential American singers and songwriters of the 20th century, he reco ...

Bill Monroe William Smith "Bill" Monroe (; September 13, 1911 – September 9, 1996) was an American mandolinist, singer, and songwriter, who created the bluegrass music genre. Because of this, he is often called the " Father of Bluegrass". The genre take ...

Milton Brown Milton Brown (September 8, 1903 – April 18, 1936) was an American band leader and vocalist who co-founded the genre of Western swing. His band was the first to fuse hillbilly hokum, jazz, and pop together into a unique, distinctly American hy ...

and the Musical Brownies,

Sleepy John Estes John Adam Estes (January 25, 1899 or 1900June 5, 1977),
known as Sleepy John Estes, was an Am ...

Fats Waller Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller (May 21, 1904 – December 15, 1943) was an American jazz pianist, organist, composer, violinist, singer, and comedic entertainer. His innovations in the Harlem stride style laid much of the basis for modern jazz pi ...

, and

Emmett Miller Emmett Miller (February 2, 1900 – March 29, 1962) was an American minstrel show performer and recording artist known for his falsetto, yodel-like voice. Miller was a major influence on many country music singers, including Hank Williams, Jimmie ...

References

External links

*
The Song of Abby the Spoon Lady : Pain, perseverance and an unlikely journey to viral fame
(''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' - 29 October 2018) * {{Authority control 1981 births 21st-century American musicians 21st-century American women musicians Activists from Kansas American street performers Free speech activists Living people Musicians from Wichita, Kansas People from Wichita, Kansas Spoon players