Behind the Songs: Rachel Sumner & Traveling Light
This Behind the Songs was an extra special one for me. I’ve gotten to listen to and chat with some wonderful Nashville folks for this series, but this is the first time I’ve had the chance to spotlight some dear friends with whom I share strong musical connections.
From Rachel’s site: 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/harmonies).
"Though Sumner has roots in both the bluegrass and classical worlds, this is true-blue singer-songwriter folk through and through, too: achingly clear, and wide open to the world, with twang and tenderness enough to carry us through the fire of an unusually difficult year on its own."
Cover Lay Down
On their first tour of the Southeast, RS&TL stopped by TNAG’s showroom for a three-song performance and interview, where they debuted a brand new song from their upcoming album!
Rachel, Kat and Mike performed "Lose My Love", a song originally written and recorded during Rachel's days with modern bluegrass band Twisted Pine. Following that, her dark ballad "Radium Girls" is about the true story of the women who suffered from their experience working in the radium factories after World War I. Lastly, as a nod to their upcoming album release (coming August 5th!), they played "If You Love Me", a Johnny Cash poem Rachel set to music.
Video and audio captured by CVG’s Jon Roncolato and Keith Cypert, and edited by Zane Dumont.
Rachel and I have known each other for years through the Boston folk music scene, where we have countless mutual friends and deep ties to Club Passim as performers, employees, teachers, and more. We also share many of the same folk inspirations, influences, and a love for an emotive, story-driven song. I love that Rachel draws from the rich well of traditional ballads, taking templates, tonality, and turns of phrase and infusing them with the complexity and emotional honesty of a modern songwriter.
She could easily go solo, but in Mike and Kat she found two musicians who not only ground and fill in the spaces, but whose musical personalities complement her own and help take her songs to an even higher plane. I hadn’t met Kat prior to their visit, but I was absolutely floored by her fiddle playing and singing. I couldn’t get over how beautifully she blended her voice with Rachel’s—making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up—and how tastefully she danced around the lead vocals with fiddle counter lines and solos. Mike’s skill as a bassist I can personally attest to, having played alongside him in countless jams. Anytime he’s around, I feel like I play better! His sensitivity to the songs and to the group dynamics make him invaluable to both the other musicians and for the listener’s experience. On top of it, he can rip a mean solo and add a third harmony.
And can we just appreciate what a photogenic beauty Rachel is? I was a little nervous about having to be the one to take the portraits, but clearly, I had no need to worry with these three.
