Article Contributed by Mike
Published on 2026-08-14
Rising Appalachia will release its new album, Trade My Troubles, on October 2, continuing the group’s distinctive blend of Southern folk traditions, New Orleans influences, Appalachian roots, storytelling and harmony singing. The generous 16-song collection features special guests Aoife O’Donovan, Ayla Nereo, Bonnie Paine and Brittany Haas.
The album’s third single, “Battering Ram,” arrived August 7, following the first two releases from the project. Another new single, “Million Colors,” is scheduled for September 4 ahead of the full album’s October release.
Trade My Troubles finds Rising Appalachia turning toward a quieter and more introspective space. The songs explore rest, restoring the spirit after burnout, and replenishing oneself through the natural world and tradition. The album is bookended by a traditional Irish traveller song and an Appalachian fiddle tune, nodding to the group’s ancestral lineages, while the songs in between touch on motherhood, moonlight, heartbreak and birdsong.
“The album tilts towards our inner experiences,” Chloe Smith reflects. “I wanted to write about love and how it expanded and broke open in new ways after I became a mother.”
In Appalachia, farmers still practice the ancestral tradition of companion planting. Corn grows tall as a trellis, beans climb the corn, and squash provides the ground cover. Rising Appalachia cultivates a similar symbiosis in its music, where Southern folk traditions, New Orleans swamp culture and Atlanta’s street spirit strengthen each other.
Known for their seamless harmonies, songcatching and storytelling, Rising Appalachia has released ten albums and toured throughout North America, South America, Europe, the Celtic Isles, Australia and beyond, performing everywhere from the Telluride Bluegrass Festival and Red Rocks Amphitheatre to NPR’s Tiny Desk. All the while, the band has cultivated a devoted grassroots following, traveling to communities big and small by train, horseback, bio-diesel bus and sailboat.
Sisters Leah Song and Chloe Smith were raised in Atlanta in a blue-collar bohemian family. Their mother was a fiddler and their father a sculptor. They attended contra dances, wandered neighborhood forests and grew up surrounded by banjos, harmony singing and other folk traditions. In her early twenties, while studying art and Indigenous activism in Chiapas, Mexico, Leah returned to her love of folk music. The sisters then began a creative career that has included busking in New Orleans, traveling with a circus from Southern Italy to Northern Sweden, and collecting songs in Ireland, Bulgaria and Colombia.
Rising Appalachia also features Duncan Wickel on fiddle and cello, David Brown on upright bass and baritone guitar, and Biko Casini on drums and percussion, each tradition keepers in their own right.
The band’s catalog has continually crossed musical and cultural boundaries. Leylines, named after the earth energies believed to connect sacred sites, was produced by Joe Henry and features special guests Ani DiFranco and Trevor Hall. Live from New Orleans at Preservation Hall served as a homecoming for Leah and Chloe, who lived in New Orleans for seven years and cut their teeth playing on the streets of the French Quarter. The album features local musicians Aurora Nealand and Branden Lewis of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.
Folk and Anchor is a curated collection of interpretations of songs by artists ranging from Bob Dylan and James Blake to Erykah Badu and Beyoncé, while the highly improvised and hypnotic The Lost Mystique of Being in the Know was recorded in a single day and features occasional bandmate Arouna Diarra of Burkina Faso on ngoni, highlighting the African roots of American folk traditions.
Beyond their music, Leah and Chloe have long been involved in movement building, direct action and advocacy work. They have partnered with organizations including the Prison Yoga Project and Honor the Earth, performed at the Hopi Reservation and Standing Rock, and used their platform to support communities and causes throughout their career.
Rising Appalachia also pioneered what it calls the “Slow Music Movement,” an effort to create more sustainable touring practices that included making handmade merchandise and welcoming local nonprofits, herbalists, farmers and poets to their shows.
When Hurricane Helene struck their home region of Western North Carolina, the band volunteered for months, helping with supply drops, rescue efforts and water deliveries. On some days, they gathered beneath a lean-to and plugged banjos and fiddles into a generator to share music and help lift the spirits of the community.
Rising Appalachia brings that same sense of connection to its live performances. The band’s shows have become communal gatherings centered around music, place, the natural world and the traditional songs that have carried people through generations.
Release Schedule
August 7 — “Battering Ram”
September 4 — “Million Colors”
October 2 — Trade My Troubles
Rising Appalachia Tour Dates
September 26-27 — Pisgah Brewing — Asheville, NC
October 2-3 — Lime Kiln Theater — Lexington, VA
October 9 — Neighborhood Theater — Charlotte, NC
October 10 — The Bijou Theater — Knoxville, TN
October 11 — CaveFest — Pelham, TN
November 7 — Moab Folk Festival — Moab, UT
November 20 — Assembly — Kingston, NY
November 21 — National Sawdust — Brooklyn, NY
Press
“Rising Appalachia shines.” — NPR Music
“Protest music for the modern age.” — Rolling Stone
“A welcome, redemptive listening experience.” — Songlines
“Rising Appalachia are as much compelling songwriters as they are masterful folk interpreters.” — No Depression
**Meta:** Rising Appalachia will release Trade My Troubles October 2, a 16-song album featuring Aoife O’Donovan, Bonnie Paine, Brittany Haas and Ayla Nereo.
