Sisters Chloe and Leah each play a unique combination of vocals, spoken word, banjo, fiddle, drum, jaw harp, kalimba, spoons, washboard, and some nasty poetics, sung and danced out on stage. With an array of incredible collaborations they are joined by everything from the stand up bass, hand percussion, baliphone, trumpet, congas, tablas, washboard, harmonica, beatboxing and more as thier style branches out to form entirely new categories of musical prowess. Using sound as a tool to ignite a cultural revolution and birth a whole new reality they continue to use song to build bridges across the globe.
Influences
Ali Farka Toure, Talib Kawli, Mum, (Smog), Jill Scott, Outkast, Ray Charles, Tom Waits, Joanna Newson, Sunni Patterson, Sufjan Stevens, Bonnie Prince Billy, Louis Armstrong, Lila Downs, The Books, the Orishas, Los Van Van, Bjork, Choco Orta, Portishead, VOCO, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Mos Def, The Be Good Tanyas, Ani Difranco, DJ Shadow, the Duhks, M.U.G.A.B.E.E., Assembly, Afroceltic Soundsystem, Morcheba, The Avett Brothers, Strange Fruit Project, Saul Williams, Dervish, Olabelle, Ottis Redding, Dirk Powell, Marta Sebestyen, Calexico, Iron and Wine, Wild Asparagus, Beethoven, Bach, Mstislav Rostropovich, The Roots, Buju Banton, Dead Prez, Billie Holiday, Bruce Molskey, the Buena Vista Social Club, Celia Cruz, Sigur Ros, the Horseflies, Martin Hayes, Coco Rosie, Meshell Ndegeocello, Erykah Badu, Solas, Jaromir Nahavica, Questlove, Dirk Powell, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Taj Mahal, The Zulu Connection, Your Mommas Big Fat Booty band, The Dirty Dozen Brass band, Regina Carter, Nina Simone, more more more...
Sounds Like
The music is constantly changing as international travel and musical collaborations continue to shape these sounds and influences...raised on the syrup of both 17th century folk tunes and the underground hip-hop movement that occupied their youthful ears...this music is ungenreable...and it looks to stay that way. Infusing blues, mountain music, gospel, spoken word, political songwriting and clever originals, there is no real way to classify their sound. You just have to listen for yourself and prepare to be captivated...
"R.I.S.E. (formally Rising Appalachia) is a genre-bending force of sound that uses both lyrical prowess and diverse artistic collaborations to defy cultural cliches and ignite a musical revolution..."
Music is the tool with which we wield political prowess. Melody for the Roots...spreading song around the globe. (We are also joining political street theater events, collaborating with Alternate Roots members across the South, studying dance and yoga, getting new tattoos, working on recording collaborations, traveling to South America, Africa, India, and the moon, volunteering for international justice projects, writing poetry on the back of scrap napkins, doing a backlog of laundry, reorganizing dusty bookshelves, and learning new languages and new peoples...) Please see below for more info, and keep your ears open for lots of new musical carni-folk excursions...
Music is becoming our tool.not just for aural pleasure, not just for hobby-but now as a means to connect with something beyond ourselves, building cultural bridges and tacking social injustice through melody. It is taking its own personality, carrying us all along the journey down the damp and strange alley ways and cryptic coded pathways... to poetic observations, social change, lyrical nonsense, political rage, symphonic coercing, ferocious bantering, cycles and train tracks, primal will, fresh air intoxicants, harmony and alliteration, noise and something sweeter than I can ever touch.
-post-apocalyptic folk fusion soul mending...perhaps?
ITS FINALLY DONE AND READY...Its rowdy, heavy on the drumming and banjo, and full of homemade sound journeys and lyricism from the long road behind us..and the deep journey ahead. Breathe it in and send us your thoughts...this is about the community in all of us...our international union. Take home a copy
Rising Appalachia
Scale Down
2007
unwound records
13 track album. 6 barand new originals.
8 reworked traditionals. all delicious.
-Scale Down
-The Whiskey Blues
-When Its Golden
-The Blackest Crow
-Raleigh and Spencer
-Unraveled
-Sail Away Ladies
-From the Castle to the Barracks
"We like a good bit of hootanany and hoedowns that tickle the gizzards way down to their sultry inner depths...little bit of good boot stompin' fiddle banjo/tunes passed down along the way...what tunes we can carry on long journeys we do- and travel frequently in old dusty backpacks and vagabond hammocks, throwing out a hitch hickers thumb as often as possible..." -Leah.
Freak-Folk-Soul from the South...
Sisters Leah and Chloe Smith grew up from the hood to the hollar'. In the streets of urban Atlanta's musical revolution and in the bosom of the Southern Appalachian music renaissance. Born to a fiddlin’ mother and a folk-sculpting father, they were raised with old-time mountain melodies as their lullabies. But, having also grown up immersed in the underground hip hop and spoken word movements of the urban South, Rising Appalachia stays true to their deep love of lyricism, hip hop, jazz, blues, soul, funk, indie-folk, and roots music from around the world.
Rising Appalachia’s eerie banjo originals, gritty lyrics and effortless sister harmonies are compared to that of Ani Difranco, Jill Scott, and even Bjork.
Touring again as a duo hear Rising Appalachia carnival folk approach to a beautiful old tradition...brining in outside collaborations from across the globe
For booking info on the 2008 tour and a Rising Appalachia press kit click on the link below:
To purchase our albums please visit the link below:
Our summer issue features a special focus on environmental justice; a feature section on the US elections and progressive responses; our continuing coverage of organizing for abolition of the Prison Industrial Complex; plus movement reports, reviews, and much more.
Left Turn is a grassroots publication dedicated to supporting social justice movements. We are an all-volunteer publication, written and edited by grassroots activists and organizers from the frontlines of movements.
Hi, Thanks A Lot. Great Concert At Kroen In Verona,Beautiful Atmosphere. Yeah!! And W LA GRAPPA. I Didn't Bought Yours Cd Because It Was Sold Out.Unfortunately. Bye martino
hay mama, so i played ur 1st cd for my 2nd graders & they loved it. aysha hasn't jacked me for it yet... but it's only been a few days. it was great meeting chloe.... she's simply beautiful. can't wait to see yall in a few weeks... i love u. hope all is well.
ahh fresh light ... im soon coming to hear your vibrations and with time on my hands ... new photography shows off the raw culture absorbed that has been so nurturing to you eclectic sirens .. harmonic sisters ..... cicles and dots -- puddles and spots
hey ladies...hope all is well with your wings, as i have no doubt for a second they are doing a fine job of flyin you around to all kind of majikal and fancy things. love both of you and can't wait till you come for a visit. leah...i heard you might be in need of a new utility belt. let me know if i can help you out-ciao, lovelies
Y'all are my Sunday morning soundtrack. Thanks. Looking forward to seeing you both again soon. Until then, absorb (absorp?) all the love the world has to offer!
