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Alathea describe their music as 'Popalachian'...
"...we're really a folk band that loves bluegrass instruments. We're certainly not a traditional bluegrass band but we are a folk band that loves bluegrass instruments. We try to use bluegrass instruments as creatively as we can in our music. We all three play instruments and we all three sing - so there is a lot of harmony as well." - Mandee Radford
Alathea is:
Carrie Buell (accordion, wind instruments, vocals), Mandee Radford (guitar, vocals), and Cristi Johnson (mandolin, percussion, vocals)
"These songs tell the simple story of our lives, sung out as creatively and honestly as we know how to be. From the images and instrumentation to the recording and photography, we tried to keep everything true to the passion of the songs and their setting in the mountains of East Tennessee."We recently got to interview Alathea and here's the scoop....
MQ:You have a very unique sound. I'm curious. Did you have any musical influences growing up? Did you come from a musical family? I know environment certainly influences music.
Mandee: My favorite artist actually is Dolly Parton. I think one of the things I really like about Dolly Parton is
that she's a great artist, she's a great singer, she's a great songwriter and she's a Christian. She wears her faith out...into everything she does. And I
think because she's so great at what she does she can influence the culture a lot easier, you know, with her faith because she is so respected in musical circles as well as people who just like to listen to music. She has a platform and a voice to talk about her faith 
in Jesus and I think that's a really great thing. I love her music. I love that she writes about the mountains and that she uses a lot bluegrass instruments and lots of harmonies. I think she's really influential not only for me, but for all of us. We have one truck - so we have to agree on the same music when we drive around.
MQ: How do you see technology influencing the creation and distribution of music?
Carrie: It's definitely changing because there is so much going on in that area and it keeps evolving on a daily basis even. I think it's hard to tell what the outcome will be with all that until we experience it. I think we definitely adapt as human beings to it all. And I think we adapt really well at times, and sometimes we adapt very poorly. The Internet has changed everything about the music industry. It really has - from the selling of the product...what we see as a product even to what we know of a product as it's the hands on thing of going to the store and receiving it. It's completely changed. You can do it in any room in any moment in any time.
Mandee: I think it's a good thing and a bad thing. I think positives are people can download your music and they can get your music. As a musician, I make music so people can hear it. The negative thing is I also have to pay my bills, you know. But, ultimately I want people to hear my music and that's the thing I deal with the most. I think that it's a positive thing in that people can get music quickly and easily on the Internet. I think the negative thing and a sad thing is that people aren't going to stores and buying CDs so they're missing the whole package - buying the artwork. We just bought the new Patty Griffin album and the artwork for it is beautiful. If I had gone to iTunes and downloaded it I wouldn't have that beautiful visual artwork. I think that's a really special thing for me especially because Carrie is an artist and she's part of our band so we always try to visually make things look great and represent our music as well. It's just another way of reaching people.
Carrie: I think at the same time the Internet has made it available to see visual stuff in a whole different way which is cool too...
Cristi: ...you can have websites and all that.
Mandee: There are so many positives and negatives. I think we're all just trying to learn how to use it the best way. I think we all haven't figured it out yet.
Carrie: It's going to take time for it to be beneficial to both sides.
Cristi: As another flip thing, we read this article that was talking about the changing of the CD format and how technology is changing everything. They were interviewing Dave Matthews and he said that what will not change is people's desire to hear music and what will not change is people's desire to see music live and he said 'as long as I can continue to offer something up live that people are drawn to hear' then...I think that's going to continue regardless of how the technology changes this product...we hope to still be offering up music in a recorded way and also in a live way that people can connect to.
Mandee: And I think that it's also
interesting a lot of people now are going to 'just making a single'...making one great song because that's what the
radio plays and that's what downloadable and all that. I think that's sad as well because I think that some of my favorite albums are the whole album and
the ten to thirteen songs the artist wanted to put on there. I think in one way it's a positive thing to get a single because then you get to know an artist easier and cheaper and quicker. But then I think the sad thing is that a lot of the art is missed because there is a whole album sometimes that people want to express.