Leah Song (born Leah Smith) is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumental musician, storyteller, poet, artist, and activist known for her role as one of the two frontsisters of Rising Appalachia — with younger sister Chloe Smith — incorporating sultry vocals, rhythm, banjo, guitar, ballads, dance, spoken-word and storytelling into her work. Her music is based in the traditions of Southern soul and international roots music.
Her musical education was nurtured by her mother, who ensured that both sisters received classical and jazz piano training for most of their upbringing. Smith's mother also guided their training in vocals and harmony singing. Banjo, fiddle and guitar came later, after the sisters had left home and moved to Asheville, North Carolina.[7][8]
Determined to pursue an experiential form of education, at 19 Song moved to Mexico, where she became involved with the Zapatista movement.[10] In a 2014 interview, she said of the experience,
I was working with the Zapatista movement and just living in and amongst the communities of southern Mexico that were working with indigenous struggle. When I moved down there I became a student of that community. I lived there for almost a year teaching and learning. I then went on to spend the next 5 years of my life traveling and living abroad in that context. I went from place to place to study and live within a community and truly be a community member. I really tried to be invested in the places I traveled to and learn from them.[10]
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Song is an activist who is concerned with homeless youth education as well as indigenous rights[11] She was an activist before she became a musician. In a 2019 interview, Song said,
The whole band was involved in activism before we were involved in performance. So it was a natural swing for us. I was doing a lot of work around indigenous communities. I spent a lot of time in Southern Mexico studying the Zapatista Movement and learning about art as a tool for social justice.[11]
Asked about indigenous rights and cultural appropriation, in the same interview Song said,
Yeah, totally. I think there’s a lot of conversation around roots and culture and indigenous rights and cultural appropriation and the incredibly complex and painful pieces of all of that. I think, from my work in indigenous justice and as an ally, and also in studying my own ancestry, so often what is wanted and needed is for people to know who they are and know where they come from. And from there you really can stand up and be an ally and in partnership with all kinds of different historical backgrounds and different movements.[11]
Song and her sister Chloe decided to record their first album, Leah and Chloe (2006),[15] one afternoon in the basement studio of a friend in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. The album was meant as a gift for family and friends but they received so much support and recognition for it that they decided to officially start a band called Rising Appalachia.
In the early days, the sisters busked in the French Quarter of New Orleans and elsewhere.[7] They began to find their own natural interpretation of Appalachian music which brought together folk, soul, hip-hop, classical, southern gospel and other styles[9] based on their upbringing on traditional Appalachian string band music, as well as on their exposure to urban music like hip-hop and jazz and the influence of roots music of all kinds which they experienced during their worldwide travels.[4]
Song's spoken-word poetry is a driving influence behind Rising Appalachia's music.[16] Her background in movement arts has inspired her to cultivate a relationship with the global circus arts and street theater communities.[12]
Leah Song performing with bodhrán, December 8, 2019
Slow Music Movement and the Wider Circles Rail Tour
Song coined the term "Slow Music Movement" while preparing for a TedX talk.[17] During Rising Appalachia's Wider Circles[18] Rail Tour, the band travelled by Amtrak train. Song connected this with the "Slow Music Movement", which she described as exploring the question as to how music can be a public service, [13] saying:
We want to have relationships with the farmers and the food of each region and also to have a relationship with different educational initiatives and non-profits. We have a policy that at each show at least two non-profits are welcome, invited — non-profits or educational initiatives, arts justice projects — to the show to set up tables and let the audiences know, as well as ourselves, what's going on locally.[19]
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