Chatham Rabbits

folk · bluegrass · americana

Chatham Rabbits is a North Carolina folk and Americana duo made up of married musicians Sarah McCombie, who plays clawhammer banjo, and Austin McCombie on guitar, with both singing. They met in 2014, when Austin, then a senior at North Carolina State University, saw Sarah perform at Peace College; Sarah had previously played with the old-time group The South Carolina Broadcasters. They married and began working as a duo, adopting the name Chatham Rabbits in 2017 after learning of a century-old string band sponsored by a cotton mill in Bynum, the Chatham County town on the Haw River where they first lived. Sarah left a job teaching Montessori music and Austin left financial advising to play full time; they now farm land in southern Guilford County that has been in Sarah's family since the mid-1700s. Their albums are All I Want from You (2019), recorded at the Rubber Room in Chapel Hill with fiddle from Libby Rodenbough of Mipso and mandolin from Andrew Marlin of Mandolin Orange; The Yoke Is Easy, The Burden Is Full (2020); If You See Me Riding By (2022); and Be Real with Me, released in February 2025 and co-produced by Austin, which turns toward marriage, ambition and growing older. PBS North Carolina built a five-part documentary series around them, On the Road with the Chatham Rabbits, first shown in 2022. Sarah has also written a children's book, Abigail. On stage the pair work spare, two voices over banjo and guitar rooted in old-time and bluegrass phrasing, with storytelling between songs about the farm and the region.

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Upcoming shows in Tennessee

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Upcoming shows in North Carolina

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Past shows in Colorado

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