Rising Appalachia

As they regroup and recharge in East Bay (the eastern region of the San Francisco Bay Area), sisters Leah Song and Chloe Smith gather energy to continue their unexpected musical career as a globally recognized Americana and world folk ensemble. Heady stuff for a couple of sisters who grew up playing music at home with family on their back porch in Georgia.

“We had not planned on pursuing a music career,” explains Leah. But fate had other plans for the duo who first played fiddle and banjo melodies at family dinners and farmers markets. “We come from a big musical family. Our mother plays fiddle, and our dad plays guitar. They played in contra bands and took us to festivals and contra dances. We probably played music in our home forty hours a week.”

In their early twenties, the girls made a recording project as a surprise holiday gift for their parents. “We recorded our rendition of the songs they had taught us.” The recording was a way to document and preserve their music as a keepsake for their parents.

Soon after, they were invited to participate in a concert in Atlanta called Atlanta Celtic Christmas, featuring several string bands playing different genres of music. “We were considered the ‘voice of young Appalachia,’ ” says Leah. “James Flannery was the host, and Alison Brown, Joe Craven, and J.J. Sheridan played.” The concert was on the campus of Emory University, and the girls were billed as Appalachian hipsters Leah and Chloe Smith (R.I.S.E.). “We played with our mom’s band,” Leah says. “There were 700 people in the audience, and we were terrified. We had never sung into a microphone, and we had no stage presence yet. We were just tossed out there and told to play.” The girls were a hit, and to their surprise, they sold all their CDs. “We got invited to play at more shows, so we kept going.”

But there was no real plan. “We weren’t sure what we wanted to do,” Leah recalls. “We kept our day jobs, working in restaurants, and going to college.” But the more they played, the more demand there was for their unique style of music. “We just kept growing, and it all happened because of a one-off art project.” That resulted in officially starting a band called Rising Appalachia.

In the band’s early days, the sisters busked in New Orleans, where they lived for several years. “We did a lot of writing while we lived in New Orleans.” They also began to find their interpretation of Appalachian music, combining elements of classical, southern gospel, soul, folk, jazz, hip-hop, and other genres. They were also influenced by traveling and studying indigenous cultures in places like Eastern Europe and Southern Mexico and through work in activism, which includes, among other issues, environmental and food justice, social and economic stratification, and cultural appropriation. They have learned to use their voice for social change and creative expression. “We have certainly been influenced by Irish ballads and traditional folk music from our travels.”

They began spending time with rural Appalachian musicians and eventually moved to the Asheville area of Western North Carolina, which gave them a stronger sense of their musical roots. “We were raised on Southern Appalachian music, so when we left New Orleans, we wanted to live near family in Georgia, and be immersed in the roots of this music, which to us is about gathering, music-keeping, and storytelling. We have a foothold in that part of our life and lineage which is an important part of what informs our music.” The Western North Carolina area is special to Leah and Chloe because it’s where they record, at Echo Mountain, and where they play at the Salvage Station venue. “That’s where we did our first festival.”

Hurricane Helene was a major event in their lives. “My home fared quite well, all things considered,” Leah says. “We had nearly 60 trees down in our neighborhood, and everyone was surging on a shoestring and a prayer. Chloe and her family had it really hard. They had no way of communicating, so they didn’t hear the warnings to evacuate. When the water began rising, they had to walk through two miles of mud to get out, and that was with a toddler. We lost contact with each other for days, which was terrifying.” They finally found each other, and for a few weeks, seven people stayed in Leah’s two-bedroom cottage with no electricity or water. At the same time, however, Leah says it was revitalizing to see how the community rallied to help each other.

They plan to return to Asheville and Western North Carolina to commemorate Helene's first anniversary. “It’s going to be several days of cleaning up, presenting concerts, and having a community catharsis and celebration of survival.”

Rising Appalachia has released two bodies of work in the past two years. Folk and Anchor is a collection of cover songs that tells the story of our writing influences, including artists like Bob Dylan and Beyoncé. They also did a ten-year anniversary re-release of Wider Circles with the addition of the song “All Fence, No Doors,” written when the sisters lived in New Orleans. “It was written after Katrina. We had never released it, and it had eerie ties to Hurricane Helene. It’s weird when you write a song at a certain time in life, and it takes on a whole new meaning later on.”

Accompanying Leah and Chloe as full-time band members are David Brown (baritone guitar and stand-up bass), Duncan Wickel (fiddle, cello, harmony vocals), and Biko Casini (percussion). Rising Appalachia plans to release a new album after a fall southeastern tour. “It's our first full studio album in many years,” says Leah. “It has traditional Appalachian fiddle medleys, Irish ballads, and a ton of original music.” The album, Trade My Troubles, will be released late fall.

It looks like this music thing may work out for them after all.