Yani Vozos, who grew up in Eastern Kentucky, and Marlon Obando, who originally hails from Nicaragua, both regularly bring songs to Appalatin, the bluegrass and folk-rock meets pan-Latin party music project based in Louisville. The funny thing: though they write lyrics in their native languages, English and Spanish respectively, they write about the same subjects. “We’ll often use the exact same words, just in a different language,” marvels Vozos.

That is the whole point of Appalatin, who celebrate the shared pleasures and pains of life on their third release, Vida (release: July 20, 2018). The group has always been about uniting the best of Appalachian and Latin traditions to get people dancing, but now these connections feel all the more vital in an era fraught with divisions and suspicion.