Dearest Home--authenticity and originality in perfect harmony:

Dearest Home brings to life traditional Appalachian music, US Civil War Era music (in period costume), and Old Time ballads and tunes from the Bayard Folk Song Collection. Expressive vocals with rich, next-of-kin harmonies interweave with sprightly dance tunes. Engaging and flexible, they perform not only Northern Appalachian songs, but also folk songs and tunes from Southern Appalachia and the Ozarks, including favorites from Jean Ritchie and the Carter Family! Don’t be surprised when they share an Old Country song or a related tune from Scotland, Ireland, or England. Passion for these traditions shines in every note! Dearest Home brings vigor and grace to every festival, concert stage, living room, wedding chapel, historical event, and present a wide array of workshops, and they delight in playing for dances! Their holiday programs include "An Appalachian and Celtic Christmas."

Like the band itself, Dearest Home’s music unites the generations! It’s presented in stirring combinations of banjo, concertina, dulcimer, fiddle, whistles, guitar, bass, keyboards, and percussion, or with evocative unaccompanied energy.

In 2015, Dearest Home performed at the Warwick Folk Festival, England, and the Marymass Festival and Edinburgh’s Wee Folk Club, Scotland. Dearest Home’s music is featured in an installation of the internationally acclaimed Seminary Ridge Museum (Civil War, “Faith and Freedom”). Since their 2011 debut, Dearest Home has played for venues including the Grand Opening of the Seminary Ridge Museum, Appalachian Studies Association Conference, Greenwood Furnace Folk Gathering, Common Ground on Seminary Ridge, Heart of the Arts Festival, Penn State University, Music Gettysburg!, Waterford Fair, St. Michael’s Soiree, Civil War Symposium, the Midtown Scholar, Hauser Estate Winery, Songs and Stories of a Civil War Hospital, Gettysburg College Library, and many other concert series and history-related events in MD, NY, PA,VA, and WV.

During their UK tour, Dearest Home released Back to Laurel Hill, their first full volume of treasures from the Samuel Bayard Folksong Collection (Pennsylvania and West Virginia). They released the EP Songs from Laurel Hill, in March 2015, at the Appalachian Studies Association Conference. The band’s CD, Dearest Home, featuring authentic Civil War era music and three tracks of Pennsylvania traditional folk songs, was released on June 30, 2013.  Folk Alliance Triple Crown Winner Si Kahn describes the album:

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.

Currently Dearest Home is recording Appalachian music from Kentucky, Virginia, and the Carolinas, including songs from Jean Ritchie and the Carter Family.