The Local Honeys bring dark Appalachian tone to Radio Room: Upstate Beat

Back in 2010, the cable network FX launched a new crime drama called “Justified.” For the next six seasons, Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, played by Timothy Olyphant, stalked through the woods and hollers of eastern Kentucky, searching for criminals and moving deeper into the shadowy history of Appalachia.

The show had a fine enough soundtrack, but if the producers had known about The Local Honeys, they probably would have used their music exclusively.

The Local Honeys is a Kentucky project to the bone. The band is a duo of violinist Montana Hobbs and guitarist Linda Jean Stokley, and their sound perfectly captures the lushness and melancholy of Appalachian culture.

Their most recent release, a 2022 self-titled effort, is packed with keening harmonies, wailing fiddle, and subtle and effective backing from electric instruments.

The largely acoustic album effortlessly struck a chord with this dyed-in-the-wool Southerner, and if you catch the band’s performance at Greenville’s Radio Room Jan 22, perhaps it will for you, as well.

The Local Honeys have the advantage of both being Southern and having studied Appalachian music in intense detail at Morehead State University; Hobbs and Stokley graduated in the early 2010s with degrees in traditional music.

“We’re deeply moved and inspired by this music, and the history that comes along with it,” says Hobbs, who plays banjo. “Somebody told us a long time ago that traditional music is dead. That’s always been something that we wrestled with because it’s not dead. It’s ever evolving. And we felt a responsibility to add our own pieces to it.”

Interestingly enough, Hobbs herself didn’t start out as a musician. She initially attended Morehead State to study veterinary medicine. But once she saw that she could get credit for a private banjo instruction class, she picked up the instrument and got hooked on old-time music thanks to the music scene surrounding her.

“I advanced pretty quickly because I had this community of people around me who were extremely encouraging and forthcoming with their knowledge,” she says. “I had incredible mentors, and there was no gatekeeping.”

That’s the spirit that Hobbs and Stokley have tried to carry forward as The Local Honeys, and their passion for that traditional Appalachian music will no doubt translate to the Radio Room audience.

“The music has to evolve,” Hobbs says. “It has to keep going. You have to share it.”