Dearest Home

Dearest Home band is the perfect blend of authenticity and originality! You’ll hear expressive vocals in rich, next-of-kin harmony interweave with sprightly dance tunes, as they perform traditional American music—Appalachian music, especially from the Bayard Folk Song Collection, uplifting Old Time music, and authentic US Civil War Era music (in period costume). You’ll enjoy favorites from Jean Ritchie and the Carter Family, Southern Appalachia and the Ozarks too! Don’t be surprised when they share a related gem from Scotland, Ireland, or England. Passion for these traditions shines in every note! They present a wide array of workshops, and they delight in playing for dancers.

Like the band’s multigenerational lineup, Dearest Home’s music unites the generations as it blends dulcimer, fiddle, concertina, whistles, guitar, bass, banjolele, keyboards, and percussion. They've performed for events large and small in the US and UK. Visit them at www.dearesthome.com and www.facebook.com/dearesthome.

Folk Aliance Triple Crown Winner Si Kahn describes Dearest Home's music:

If ‘home is where the heart is,’ then the singers and musicians who together make up Dearest Home have clearly poured their hearts into their new self-titled album. Deeply steeped in the traditional music of Pennsylvania, my own home state, they have chosen wisely from their wide repertoire of Civil War songs, Appalachian ballads and fiddle tunes. Singing with passion, skill and the resonant matching of voices that seems born in the blood of next-of-kin, Dearest Home presents us with close harmony in many senses of the phrase, on stage and on CD. In their voices, you can hear the peaks and valleys of the landscape, feel the past and future marching together, and sense the shadows of the mountains.

Like the band’s multigenerational lineup, Dearest Home’s music unites the generations as it blends dulcimer, fiddle, concertina, whistles, guitar, bass, banjolele, keyboards, and percussion. They've performed for events large and small in the US and UK. Here's a partial list of venues where they've delighted audiences: Warwick Folk Festival, England, and the Marymass Festival and Edinburgh’s Wee Folk Club, Scotland; Seminary Ridge Museum Grand Opening, Appalachian Studies Association, Greenwood Furnace Folk Gathering, Common Ground on Seminary Ridge, Heart of the Arts Festival, Penn State University, Music Gettysburg!, Waterford Fair, Civil War Institute, and many other events in MD, NY, PA and VA.