THE APPALUCIANS

THE APPALUCIANS

The Appalucians play music from the mountains of Western North Carolina, featuring spirited songwriting, sublime harmonies, and a layered interplay between dobro, guitars, harmonica and banjo. The band is the musical union of two couples Jay Brown and Aditi Sethi and Angie Heimann and Cas Sochacki who met at their kids’ preschool, gradually realized their seemingly cosmic musical alignment, and decided they better start a band.Their debut album “Bright Hills,” recorded at Higher Ground Studio in Birmingham, AL, released in early summer 2018, has flavors of mountain folk, 70’s folk-rock and barroom twang.

The moniker “the Appalucians” belies the band’s playful relationship with words, pairing their often mountain-esque sound with the root word “lucia” (latin for “light.”)The Appalucians’ repetoire, comprised mainly of songs penned by Ohio-born Angie Heimann (guitar, vocals, banjo,) and Alabama native Jay Brown (guitar, vocals, harmonica) explores themes both dark and light, connecting to the peaks and valleys of the human experience. Brown’s other projects include rhythm/roots band Lazybirds, his solo work as a one-man-band, and Aditi and Jay, duet project with his wife Aditi Sethi. Heimann’s other projects include performing solo and fronting the California-born band the Blushin’ Roulettes, which has morphed into a duet project with her partner Cas Sochacki.

The life experiences of the band members have contributed largely to both the depth and the playfulness of their music’s running themes. India-born, Georgia raised Aditi Sethi (bass, vocals) works as an end-of-life care physician and doula. Jay Brown works as a music therapist in hospice. As songwriters, Jay Brown and Angie Heimann are often both drawn to themes of the passing of time in life and the great beyond. All members of the Appalucians have endured the deaths of dear friends and bandmates in their musical pasts, which informs the depth of their performance in songs like “Rhythm in the Wind,” “Hailbop” and “Summerlawn.”

The band’s sillier side is expressed in off-the-cuff witty stage banter, and  funny songs like “Don’t Bother Me,” a song for parents of young children, penned by Cas Sochacki- (dobro, occasional baritone vocals.) Sochacki also engineers Farmstead Studio, the birthplace of the side project “Old Mill Radio Hour” a comedy/music show which includes writing and music of members of the Appalucians/Lazybirds/Blushin’ Roulettes, and is scheduled to hit the folk festival circuit summer 2019.

The Appalucians toured California and Alaska in the summer of 2018  to celebrate the release of their debut album Bright Hills.