The Venue of Merging Arts (VOMA) Folk & Bluegrass series is thrilled to feature another award-winning Boston based touring group, Rachel Sumner and Traveling Light.
Fresh off a first-place win at the 2023 Thomas Point Beach Bluegrass Festival band competition, Rachel Sumner & Traveling Light have been captivating audiences throughout the northeast. With songs as sweet and biting as the nectar and venom in her voice, Rachel Sumner's lyric-forward writing and penchant for snaking chord progressions demand something far beyond folk conventions, highlighting the acrobatic range of her brilliant bandmates Kat Wallace (fiddle) and Mike Siegel (upright bass).
Sumner is no stranger to the stage. She spent her early career on the bluegrass circuit, singing and writing with the genre-bending Boston group Twisted Pine. Since setting out on her own, we are beginning to fully recognize her dynamism as a writer and performer. Sumner's songs have been critically acclaimed, winning the Lennon Award in the folk category of the 2021 John Lennon Songwriting Contest for her song "Radium Girls (Curie Eleison);" earning her a spot in the Kerrville New Folk Competition; and being chosen four consecutive years by WBUR/NPR as one of the top Massachusetts entries in the Tiny Desk Competition.
In 2011, Rachel relocated from the west coast to Boston as a classical flutist, intending only to study Composition and Film Scoring at Berklee College of Music. She didn’t play any other instruments - she hadn’t even thought to strum a string on the guitar at that point. Rachel might have begun her formal training in wind ensembles and orchestras, but folk music was important to her family and had been fueling her musical passion from the very start. While at school, she eventually found herself making friends with bluegrass musicians (some of whom would become her future band mates and collaborators) who encouraged and taught her to play basic chords on the guitar and introduced her to the canon of traditional music. In the short time since, Rachel has become one of the most vital voices in Boston's thriving roots music scene; she has written award-winning songs, toured internationally, and recorded and released four albums.
Rachel Sumner and Traveling Light are currently on tour promoting their recently released second album, Heartless Things, on a tour that includes performances at the Kerville (TX) Folk Festival, Rochester (NY) International Jazz Festival, Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival (Oak Hill, NY) and the Earl Scruggs Music Festival in Mill Spring, NC.
Opening the evening will be one of Johnstown’s favorite folk music groups, Striped Maple Hollow.
Admission: $15 (VIP Members $12) BYOB (21+)
Doors @ 7pm Music @ 7:30pm