Rachel Sumner & Traveling Light

The worlds of bluegrass and folk music, at one time the exclusive domain of Bill Monroe and Pete Seeger-style traditionalists, have spun off a dizzying array of contemporary artists who have taken those forms to some surprising places. Rachel Sumner and Traveling Light, for example. 

Fresh off a first-place win at the 2023 Thomas Point Beach Bluegrass Festival band competition, the band has been captivating audiences throughout the northeast. Rachel's lyric-forward writing and penchant for snaking chord progressions demand musicianship beyond ordinary folk conventions, and her brilliant bandmates Kat Wallace (fiddle) and Mike Siegel (upright bass) are clearly more than up to the task.

Originally a classical flutist from the dusty Mojave desert, Sumner relocated from California to Boston to study Composition and Film Scoring at Berklee College of Music. While at school, she found herself in the orbit of roots musicians like Molly Tuttle, Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, and John Mailander who introduced her to a treasure trove of traditional music, started her off with a few chords on the guitar, and encouraged her to write her own songs.

Rachel's early career was spent on the bluegrass circuit, performing with the genre-bending roots group Twisted Pine. Since setting out on her own, her songs have been critically acclaimed: winning the 2021 John Lennon Award in the folk category for "Radium Girls (Curie Eleison)," earning a spot in the Kerrville New Folk Competition, and being chosen for four years running as one of the top Massachusetts entries in NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert Competition. 

Rachel Sumner & Traveling Light released their debut LP in the summer of 2022.