Interview: Chloe Smith (Rising Appalachia)

Inspired by home and extensive travels, sisters Leah Song and Chloe Smith of Rising Appalachia merge their Southern roots with global musical styles to capture the folk group’s unique sound. What started as a small art project by Song and Smith in 2005 has become a full-time focus with eight albums, international touring, and advocacy for a number of causes. Returning to Salvage Station on Saturday, July 9, the show will be a bit of a homecoming for the sisters, who now split their time between Asheville, Atlanta, and New Orleans. 

“Leah and I grew up coming to these mountains with our mom and dad,” Smith says. “They played for square dances and contra dances and chased fiddle tunes, so we frequented Mount Airy and Black Mountain Festival and Clifftop, West Virginia. These mountains provided a real good balance to the urban setting of Atlanta, where we are from, and we are thankful to call them both home.”

Creativity has always been a family affair for Smith and Song — their mother is a musician and their father a visual artist. When asked how working together as sisters shaped their identity and sound, Smith replies, “We have the same vocal cord structure and DNA patterns, so we have always laughed that it's cheating when we find harmonies together because some of it is just sort of built in. But as a female- and family-led project, being sisters has patterned our entire project from how we tour to how we hold meetings to how we check in on our band.”

More than just music, Rising Appalachia is also committed to community and activism. “We consider ourselves folk musicians, and folk music has always been music by the people for the people,” Smith says. “It’s unpolished and gritty by nature, a type of music not seeking center stage on radio or news outlets but weaving itself into the front porches and living rooms of peoples homes.” 

She continues, “We have written songs you can sing along to as well as abstract compositions that wander to their own tune: music for gathering and music for hollering real loud in your car. Our activism has been interwoven since we first started, because in a way, we were activists before we were musicians, so naturally we wanted to use the stage to speak to larger topics than ourselves.”

Photo by S. Taylor Photos

At the forefront of their activism is the Slow Music Movement, which Smith describes as “a response to the ridiculous pace of the music industry. All the incessant travel and need to produce, the ticking clock that weighs artists’ value by how many tickets they sell and how big their tour bus is. The Slow Music Movement encourages small town connection, sustainable travel routes, [and] local nonprofit outreach. It’s a way for us to dialogue with the industry about how we see ourselves in this work for the long haul.” 

With the COVID-19 pandemic bringing live performance to a halt over the past two years, the entire music industry was forced to slow down. “Honestly, we leaned into it being an unplanned but much needed break,” Smith reveals. “Live shows are our bread and butter, and we missed performing incredibly, but resting from full time touring was sweeter than we thought.” 

They used their time away from touring to create The Song Catcher and The Muse, an online songwriting workshop. “We developed [it] during lockdowns when we wanted to share more intimate creative space with some of our fans and lean into teaching,” Smith says. “Previously, we taught song sessions at festivals and events, but the online platform was new. The class is a three-part series that explores songwriting techniques, some background behind some of the songs we have written, vocal warm ups and strengthening exercises, writing prompts, Q&A sessions, etc. It's been immensely enjoyable for us to stretch in this new way and hone our teaching ability, bringing the music outside of self and into more of a learning/supportive environment.” 

They also used this time to record and release a surprise album, 2021’s The Lost Mystique of Being in the Know, tracked at Asheville’s own Echo Mountain Recording. When asked about the pandemic’s influence on making the album, Smith notes, “The band had not seen one another for over a year, had not played together or rehearsed anything in what felt like eons. We came together for a livestream concert and then decided to stick around in the studio to try some recording out.” 

She adds, “What evolved was a very playful, almost entirely improvised album. Being that we usually chart out albums years in advance, that was quite a stretch for us. It was new and exciting and free form, a creative response to a very uncertain time. Artistically that felt like the right thing to do.”

The group is back on the road this summer and has a host of other new projects on the horizon. “Gardens, land projects, remix albums, new albums, collaborations with reproductive rights organizations, collaborations with women musicians, international touring, herbal medicine merch lines, poetry collections, retreats,” Smith says. “All sorts of things in the cooker!”

IF YOU GO

Who: Rising Appalachia with Zydeco Ya Ya
When: Saturday, July 9, 6:30 p.m.
Where: Salvage Station, 468 Riverside Drive, salvagestation.com
Tickets: $35 advance/$40 day of show

(Photo by Syd Woodward)