From China To Appalachia

This intriguing, East-meets-West collaboration started at the Strathmore Music Center, near Washington, D.C., where Chao Tian, a visual artist and master of the Chinese hammered dulcimer, was artist in residence.

Tian’s music caught the attention of Maryland-based folk veterans Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer, and the result is this imaginative collaboration, which they’ve since taken on the road.

Fink and Marxer bring traditional Appalachian sounds to the mix in the form of songs like “Ruby, Are You Mad At Your Man,” the boisterous “Pig Ankle Rag,” the celebratory “Hold Each Other Up” and a soaring version of “High On a Mountain.”

The arrangements are full of drive and fervor, yet have a distinctly eastern edge, due to Tian’s vocals and dulcimer and the use of esoteric instruments like gourd banjo, cello-banjo, a hand-held bamboo instrument called the Sibao.

Tian, for her part, brings a handful of Chinese folk songs to the mix, including the dream “Non Wi Wan,” the haunting “White Snake” and the charming “August Flower.”

What’s most impressive is how these clearly disparate styles are melded here with such magic and grace.