Rachel Sumner and Traveling Light: Traditional Folk and Bluegrass

Lennon-Award-winning songwriter Rachel Sumner sits at the helm of the string band Traveling Light (fiddle, guitar, bass). This Boston based acoustic trio come bearing new interpretations of traditional folk songs and lend their deeply rooted bluegrass know-how to tightly crafted original songs written by Sumner. In addition to some of their own songs, the group performed their own take on songs taken from the American Folklife Center archives. While their instrumentation and textures show roots deep in bluegrass and traditional folk music, Sumner's lyric-forward writing and penchant for snaking chord progressions venture beyond folk conventions, highlighting the acrobatic range of her bandmates Kat Wallace on fiddle and Mike Siegel on upright bass. The Homegrown Music Concert Series is part of American Folklife Center's ongoing public programming activities highlighting the fields of folklife, ethnomusicology, oral history and related disciplines, foregrounding its archival holdings, and fulfilling its Congressionally-mandated mission.
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