Free at Noon Flashback: Rising Appalachia sisters sing ballads for World Cafe Live

Rising Appalachia | Photo by Breanna Keohane for WXPN

Downtown Atlanta sisters Leah and Chloe Smith brought Rising Appalachia to Philadelphia for today’s Free at Noon concert. The folk duo was backed by percussionist Biko Casini and bass player/ guitarist David Brown to deliver a full sound as they sang their ballads of love and life.

The multi-instrumental sisters produce a traditional, harmonic sound with multiple string instruments from the violin to guitar, including bass and bongos. Their songs are influenced by experiences, like trips to an island off of Naples, Italy, combined with their down-south roots.

Today’s performance was a preview of their show tonight, with Philadelphia being just one stop along their tour, which took off two days prior to today’s show. Raising Appalachia is naming this tour as “The Slow Music Movement” – an effort to bring the soul reason for performance back to the music industry. Their most recent album Wider Circles gets down to the message of opening up, reflecting on their message as a band to expand out and bring their audience together as a family.

Rising Appalachia will be performing again tonight at World Cafe Live. Check out the WXPN Concert Calendar for details. Listen back to today’s Free at Noon concert and check out the photo gallery below.

1. Across the Blue Ridge Mountains.
2. Novels of Acquaintance
3. Filthy Dirty South
4. Wider Circles
5. Caminando
6. Medicine
7. Lean In
8. Stromboli