The pandemic spawned many unlikely musical connections, but the story of Larry & Joe continues to resonate long after lockdown lifted. Larry Bellorín hails from Monagas, Venezuela and is a legend of música llanera, the celebratory harp-driven national music and dance of the South American nation. Joe Troop grew up in North Carolina’s Piedmont and is a Grammy-nominated bluegrass and oldtime musician. When Larry was forced into exile he sought asylum in North Carolina. Meanwhile, Joe, after a decade in Buenos Aires leading the Latingrass quartet Che Apalache, got stranded back in his North Carolina stomping grounds by the pandemic. Larry worked construction to make ends meet and Joe turned his attention to working with asylum-seeking migrants. It seems they were destined to meet. A musical friendship was quickly struck and they’ve been inseparable musical partners ever since. Currently based in the Triangle of North Carolina, both men are versatile multi-instrumentalists and singer-songwriters on a mission to show that music has no borders. Performing a fusion of Venezuelan and Appalachian folk music on harp, banjo, cuatro, fiddle, maracas, guitar, upright bass and whatever else they decide to throw in the van, the duo creates a singular blend of their musical inheritances, punctuated by storytelling about the ways that music and social movements coalesce.