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‘Rising’ act a Celtic-Bjork mix

Rising Appalachia’s show at the Melting Point Friday may pose a challenge to first-time listeners: Pinpointing the group’s sound is a task not even its members can do easily.

“We were actually just discussing this a second ago,” said Leah Smith, who, along with sister Chloe Smith and percussionist Forrest Kelly, form Rising Appalachia.

“We’re a middle ground between The Be Good Tanyas and Ani DiFranco,” Leah said. “With percussion like Bjork or Tom Waits, with stomping and beating on whiskey flasks.”

Genres rarely talked about in the same sentence come together in Rising Appalachia’s work.

“There’s some vintage jazz and experimental junk percussion,” Leah said. “But the foundation is in mournful traditional Appalachian music.”

Leah also described the music as African-influenced and drum heavy.

Michael Francis, who runs online radio station Internet Radio From Tuolumne (county), was looking for new music to feature on a show for the station and found Rising Appalachia while searching for Celtic music on Myspace.

The group, he said, seems to blend Celtic, bluegrass and blues “like a good brewer blends malt” with the different influences complementing each other.

“While the music is not that strict as far as the genre goes, neither is the station, so they fit right in,” Francis said.

Diversity is an ongoing theme in both the group’s music and live show.

The three members use a variety of instruments, including the banjo and jaw harp, and usually include one or two songs in a foreign language plus one sung a cappella in their set.

“It’s really kind of like a variety show. We’re working toward a broad appeal,” Smith said.

Kelly has an exotic list of musical contraptions.

“I play mainly the djembe, kickdrum, snare, balron, cajon, washboard, bottles with stomping, beatboxing, tapping, anything that makes a noise,” he said.

About playing shows with the Smith sisters, he said, “It’s really enthrallingly, energetically and motivatingly inspiring. I love it.”

The Smith sisters were immersed in music from the start. Leah said they grew up in the heart of downtown Atlanta and were involved in the underground political hip-hop movement.

“We were raised in a musical family. We’ve been playing together since Chloe was born,” she said.

At first, they never thought to take the professional route with their music.

“It was not really cool for us,” Leah said.

“We looked on it with skepticism.”

But since becoming Rising Appalachia, the band has traveled extensively, playing shows in Italy, Ireland and Slovenia.

“It was amazing, first and foremost. The level of appreciation for music there is very high,” Chloe said.

“We were thrown into lots of small communities of music lovers supportive of grassroots musicians like us.”

Apart from its instrumental diversity, the trio also works to include a physical aspect, influenced in part from having a percussionist with a background in fire dancing.

“We include a little dance, without fire. We do that more at festivals and things after the show,” Leah said. “Venues don’t really like having a giant flaming twirling thing inside.”

The band’s biggest upcoming project is its new album, “Scale Down.”

“We’ve been piecing together songs for the past year, but really the past two months have been in the studio, working on the finite details,” Chloe said.

Rising Appalachia expects the album to be released at their party March 18 at an Atlanta art gallery, Eyedrum.