Leah Song
Leah Song | |
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![]() Leah Song in 2010 in New Orleans. | |
Background information | |
Birth name | Leah Smith |
Born | Atlanta, Georgia, USA |
Origin | New Orleans, Louisiana, USA |
Genres | Appalachian folk Roots music Southern soul World music |
Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter |
Instrument(s) | Vocals, banjo, fiddle, guitar |
Years active | 2006–present |
Labels | Independent |
Member of |
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.
Song engages in social activism and is involved with environment, food justice, human rights and criminal justice and prison reform. She has been a speaker at TEDx in Asheville, North Carolina.[2][3]
Early life and education
[edit]Leah Smith was born and grew up in Atlanta, Georgia into an artistic family. Her father, Andrew Hunter Smith, is a folk-sculptor and painter.[4][5] Her mother, Jan Smith, is a jazz pianist and folk musician schooled in the traditions of southern Appalachian folk music who played fiddle with the Rosin Sisters.[6]
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]
She graduated from Henry W. Grady High School[9] where she was involved in political activism.
Travels
[edit]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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Activism
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/60/Leah_Song_at_LEAF%2C_May_11%2C_2018.jpg/220px-Leah_Song_at_LEAF%2C_May_11%2C_2018.jpg)
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 is also involved in the environmental activism of the Appalachian Mountains and Gulf Coast regions. She is also involved with food justice, human rights activism,[12] and prison activism.[13] She works with prison programs which cultivate emotional release through the arts around the United States.[12]
Rising Appalachia has sung in support of the Occupy movement.[14]
Musical career
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/48/RisingAppalachiaFloydFest9.jpg/170px-RisingAppalachiaFloydFest9.jpg)
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]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/20/Leah_Song_December_2019.jpg/220px-Leah_Song_December_2019.jpg)
Slow Music Movement and the Wider Circles Rail Tour
[edit]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]
Selected discography
[edit]With Rising Appalachia
[edit]- Rising Appalachia (2006). Leah and Chloe (CD). CD Baby/Rising Appalachia.
- Rising Appalachia (2007). Scale Down (CD). CD Baby/Unwound.
- R.I.S.E. (Rising Appalachia) (2008). Evolutions in Sound: Live (CD). CD Baby/R.I.S.E. (Rising Appalachia).
- Rising Appalachia (2010). The Sails of Self (CD). CD Baby/Rising Appalachia.
- Rising Appalachia (2012). Filthy Dirty South (CD). CD Baby/Rising Appalachia.
- Rising Appalachia (2015). Wider Circles (CD). Rising Appalachia.[20]
- Rising Appalachia (2017). Alive (CD). Rising Appalachia. (live album)
- Rising Appalachia (2019). Leylines (CD). Rising Appalachia.
- Rising Appalachia (2021). The Lost Mystique of Being in the Know (CD). Rising Appalachia.
Independent music videos
[edit]- Leah Song (2011). Lagrimas Negras (video). By Miguel Matamoros. Chad Hess Production. Retrieved 2015-05-09.
- Leah Song (2012a). Lagrimas Negras (version 2) (video). By Miguel Matamoros. Chad Hess Production. Retrieved 2015-05-09.
- Leah Song (2012b). Love Stays (video). Directed by Chad Hess. Chad Hess Production. Retrieved 2015-05-09.
- Leah Song (2013a). Caminando: Live (video). Chad Hess Production. Retrieved 2015-05-09.
- Leah Song (2013b). Thank You Very Much (video). Leah Song Music. Retrieved 2015-05-14.
Collaborative music videos
[edit]- Leah Song (2014a). Beautiful Cypher Jam Session (video). With Biko Casini, Climbing PoeTree, Elijah+ and Band of Light. Kauai: Kamana Media. Retrieved 2015-05-14.
- Leah Song (2014b). Spirit's Cradle (video). With Climbing PoeTree (poetics), Biko Casini (percussion). Vincent Wilson. Retrieved 2015-05-09.
- Rising Appalachia (July 27, 2013). Occupy (video). With Nakho Bear. FloydFest. Retrieved 2015-05-15.
- Leah Song; Quetzal Jordan (January 13, 2018). Quiet for the Lull (video). AVL Plays Well With Others. Retrieved 2021-12-29.
Interviews and talks
[edit]- Guildner, Kami. "Leah Song: Singer and Songwriter of Rising Appalachia". Extraordinary Women Radio (podcast). Episode 089. Retrieved 2020-01-07.
- Leah Song (2015a). Leah Song at the St. Augustine Symposium (video). Hosted by Micah Gilliam. The St. Augustine Symposium. Retrieved 2015-05-14.
- Leah Song (2015b). What is the slow music movement? (video). TEDxAsheville. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
See also
[edit]- Environmental issues in Appalachia
- Environmental justice and coal mining in Appalachia
- Social and economic stratification in Appalachia
- Songlines
References
[edit]Citations
[edit]- ^ "Starling Arrow - About". StarlingArrow.com. Retrieved 2022-12-01.
- ^ Frankel 2015.
- ^ Leah Song 2015b.
- ^ a b Brewer 2007.
- ^ English 2014.
- ^ McDonald 2015.
- ^ a b Freeman 2013.
- ^ Walsh 2014.
- ^ a b Alexander 2011.
- ^ a b Benjamin 2014.
- ^ a b c Kofsky 2019.
- ^ a b c McGregor 2014.
- ^ a b Bernhardt 2015.
- ^ Rising Appalachia 2013.
- ^ Rising Appalachia 2006.
- ^ Centanni 2014.
- ^ Keyframe Entertainment 2016.
- ^ Rising Appalachia 2015.
- ^ Ogbonna 2015.
- ^ Swaidner 2015.
Works cited
[edit]- Alexander, Rachel (July 15, 2011). "Rising Appalachia Interview". RisingAppalachia.com. Archived from the original on 2013-07-04.
- Benjamin, Abby (October 29, 2014). "Our Contemporary Folk Story: An Interview with Rising Appalachia's Leah Song". Sparkleberry Lane. Retrieved 2015-05-08.
- Bernhardt, Erin (April 29, 2015). "The Slow Music Movement". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2015-05-08.
- Brewer, David (June 7, 2007). "Rising Appalachia's New Fashioned Old-Time World Music". High Country Press. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved 2015-03-27.
- Centanni, Stephen (April 30, 2014). "Sisters rely on musical heritage to put together entertaining live shows". Lagniappe Weekly. Retrieved 2015-03-27.
- English, Brandon (December 19, 2014). "Rising Appalachia at the Fox Theater". Creative Loafing Atlanta. Retrieved 2015-03-27.[dead link]
- Frankel, Jake (January 12, 2015). "Revived TEDxAsheville conference aims to challenge assumptions". Mountain Xpress. Retrieved 2015-05-08.
- Freeman, Scott (October 11, 2013). "30 Under 30: Rising Appalachia's Chloe Smith stands on the beautiful edge of a creative cliff". ArtsATL.com. Archived from the original on March 28, 2015. Retrieved 2015-03-27.
- Keyframe Entertainment (March 18, 2016). "Interview with Rising Appalachia and Permaculture Action Network". Reality Sandwich. Retrieved 2016-05-19.
- Kofsky, Moriah (November 18, 2019). "How Rising Appalachia is forging connections with activists and ancestors, one community at a time". The Key. Retrieved 2021-12-09.
- McDonald, Susan (May 9, 2015). "Rising Appalachia brings worldly melodies, folk-soaked sounds to The Met". Providence Journal. Retrieved 2015-05-10.
- McGregor, Emmett (April 29, 2014). "Featured Music: Rising Appalachia". SolPurpose. Retrieved 2015-05-08.
- Ogbonna, Thandiwe (April 29, 2015). "Rising Appalachia's Leah Smith on Wider Circles, the Rail Tour, & the Slow Music Movement". No Depression. Retrieved 2015-05-08.
- Swaidner, Erin (February 13, 2015). "Rising Appalachia Launches The Wider Circles Rail Tour in Advance of New Album". Appalachian Jamwich. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved 2015-03-27.
- Walsh, Michael (April 21, 2014). "Live review: Rising Appalachia, Visulite Theatre (4/19/2014)". The Clog: News & Culture. Womack Newspapers. Retrieved 2015-05-08.
Further reading
[edit]- Hysen, Britt (March 30, 2015). "Rising Appalachia Uses Folk Music to Inspire Activism". Millennial. 1 (34). Retrieved 2015-05-10.
- Johnson, Phillip (November 11, 2016). "Interview: Leah Song of Rising Appalachia". Seattle Music News. Retrieved 2020-01-07.
- McLaughlin, Karin (November 18, 2019). "A Sit Down With Leah Smith of Rising Appalachia". DC Music Review. Retrieved 2020-01-07.
- NPR (October 31, 2006). "Rising Appalachia: 'Say Darlin' Say'". NPR Music. NPR. Retrieved 2015-03-27.
- Rising Appalachia (n.d.). "The RISE Collective". RisingAppalachia.com. Archived from the original on 2015-03-16. Retrieved 2015-03-27.
- Wooldridge, Talia (2017). "Alive with Rising Appalachia: A Conversation with Leah Smith". The Spill Magazine. Retrieved 2021-12-30.
External links
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Official Leah Song Music page on Facebook
- Leah Smith discography at Discogs
- Leah Song's channel on YouTube
- Living people
- 21st-century American women singers
- 21st-century American singer-songwriters
- American activists
- American banjoists
- American folk singers
- American multi-instrumentalists
- American spoken word artists
- American storytellers
- American women guitarists
- American women poets
- American women singer-songwriters
- Bodhrán players
- American feminist musicians
- Folk musicians from Georgia (U.S. state)
- Guitarists from Georgia (U.S. state)
- Musicians from Appalachia
- Singers from Atlanta
- Musicians from New Orleans
- Rising Appalachia
- Singer-songwriters from Georgia (U.S. state)
- Women storytellers