Rise Above the Noise

At sold-out theaters and venues around the country, Rising Appalachia’s live shows blur the lines between audience and performer. 

Led by the Asheville-based sister duo of Leah and Chloe Smith, the band creates mountain music accented with everything from hip-hop to world fusion. In this realm, old-time fiddlers share stage space with jazz trumpeters and Afro-Cuban percussionists, and performances weave between messages of love, Appalachian traditions, and social activism, tackling causes such as mountain-top removal and fracking. This past winter, a take-it-to-the-people campaign on Kickstarter.com helped fund the recording of the group’s sixth album, Wider Circles, at Asheville’s Echo Mountain Studios.

Q&A with Chloe Smith

What’s the story behind the name Rising Appalachia?

We feel that Rising Appalachia stands for many things, quite literally that we are rising from a tradition of Appalachian music and culture passed down to us through our family. But also, it’s more of a dreamscape idea that Appalachia itself is rising up and sprouting, through countless incredible people, many with new visions for our collective future.

Does landscape play into your music?

There’s a fierce feminine soul to these mountains, a grandmother of sorts, and those who need nourishment, healing, and natural wonder have little trouble finding it here. That quiet pulse of these ancient mountains still calls me home and soothes the roughest parts of my spirit. The simple act of sharing something artistic and rooted in community and tradition influenced our whole family as well as our vision of the work we do with Rising Appalachia. The mountains and spirit of the land here has always offered a maternal and calming home to give back to and draw inspiration from.

What are your roles as musicians?

We are continuing to learn our work as soul crafters, piecing together the deep seeds of story and song. Our studies of traditional music and contemporary lyrical composition keep us invested in the role of the troubadour, as well as in forging a movement to bring voice to the voiceless, bring melody to stories, and make space for people to be heard.

Tell us about your new album.

We crafted each song as a poem, and hope that people who receive it hear our message in their own unique ways—and take it as a prayer and a call to action.