Abby the Spoon Lady is one of very few professional spoon players in the United States, and has been a professional street performer for over a decade. Abby studied American folk percussion, music, and folklore while traveling the United States by foot and rail. Now an internationally known street performer, she plays with some of Asheville’s finest local and visiting performers at festivals, within venues, and right on the sidewalk. Along with finding her within various horror and short films, you can watch interviews with Abby in such documentaries as Nashville 2012, and also Buskin’ Blues, about the world-class street performing scene in Asheville, NC. She is currently President of the Asheville Buskers Collective. Abby fell into both street performance and spoon playing when she started backpacking around the United States. She became obsessed with folk rhythm and culture, and the stories surrounding. Abby lugged around notebooks of handwritten stories and random digital cameras, hitchhiking and riding freight trains around all 48 of the main states, figuring it out as she went. Playing spoons became a way to fund her adventures around the country. Another traveler taught her how to hold the spoons and run them down her fingers, and she taught herself from there. Abby and her best friend/musical partner Chris Rodrigues will be performing at the Back Home Appalachian Arts & Music Festival on Saturday, June 30th at 3:30pm. They met in Asheville, street performing on the sidewalk. In Asheville, the performers take two-hour turns on some of the most popular spots. Eventually, as fate would have it, Abby and Chris would play a set of music together. A video of Abby & Chris went viral in 2017 and to date has garnered more than 5 million views internationally.