With songs as sweet and biting as the nectar and venom in her voice, Rachel Sumner has been captivating audiences throughout the northeast with her exciting new band Traveling Light. 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 demand something beyond folk conventions, highlighting the acrobatic range of her brilliant bandmates Kat Wallace (fiddle/harmonies) 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, 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 three consecutive years by WBUR/NPR as one of the top Massachusetts entries in the Tiny Desk Competition. Rachel Sumner & Traveling Light released their debut LP in the summer of 2022 to acclaim; Americana Highways says, "Rachel Sumner & Traveling Light shine bright on new album"

In 2023 Rachel Sumner & Traveling Light won the Thomas Point Beach Bluegrass Competion, and her song “Radium Girls” was featured in the Library of American Folklife Center’s Homegrown Music of America series at the Library of Congress.

““Though the song’s subjects lived over a century ago, it brings modern ideas of feminism and workers’ rights to the fore. And now this song has caught the attention of the ethnomusicologists and folklorists of the Library of Congress, where it will be featured in the American Folklife Center’s Homegrown Music of America concert series and added to its permanent collection, an honour rarely bestowed on modern songs””

— AMERICANA UK

$17 advance | $22 day-of

*fees not included