Rising Appalachia is back on the road, with two sisters and a band on the way to two shows in Big Sur.

Big Sur is a perfect scenery for their earthy folk music, so naturally Rising Appalachia has been here “quite a few times,” says Chloe Smith, the younger of the two multi-instrumentalist sisters who make up the Atlanta-based band. The band is already on the road, the car humming during a phone interview; they are passing Portland.

Smith and Leah Song, who recorded their first album Leah and Chloe in 2005 in a studio basement, are familiar with Highway 1 and taken with “the glory of the ocean,” Smith continues.

This is definitely their “biggest tour this year,” she says, and the world of traveling and playing looks different from only a few years ago. When she was younger, Smith dreamed about becoming a pilot, but “I’m more thankful than ever for being an artist,” she says about the trying times of the pandemic. In addition to writing songs, she plays banjo, fiddle and guitar. “Music is magical by nature. It keeps us going, as artists and as troubadours.”

The music they make is immersive by nature. Rising Appalachia travels all the way – not only to places and cultures but into places and cultures, borrowing instruments and traditions, Irish drums and Bulgarian folk singing. The resulting sound is tribal and universal at once. With the Appalachian string band music at the core, Song and Smith infuse the tradition with elements of more contemporary genres, such as jazz or hip-hop, and spoken word. The sisters don’t shy away from politics, speaking up for the environment and against racial inequality.

“It is really special,” Smith says of working so closely with her sibling. “We’ve been working together for 15 years. We often joke that we can’t break up, we are stuck together for life. (Laughter). We wouldn’t have it any other way.”

They have recorded at least eight albums to date, as well as pursuing various side and solo projects. These days, they are accompanied by four other band members: Biko Casini, David Brown, Arouna Diarra and Duncan Wickel.

“Sometimes I see solo artists on tours,” Smith says. “They seem lonely. For us, wherever we go, there is family around. We get to take a piece of home.”

RISING APPALACHIA performs at 3pm Saturday, July 30. Treebones Resort, 71895 Highway 1, Big Sur. Sold out. treebonesresort.com. 7pm Sunday, July 31. Henry Miller Memorial Library, 48603 Highway 1, Big Sur. $140. 667-2574, henrymiller.org