Rachel Sumner and Traveling Light
Bookish bite. Sharp harmonies. Songs about saints, scientists, and stubborn women. Winners of the 2025 Telluride Bluegrass Band Contest, Rachel Sumner and Traveling Light blends bluegrass and folk genres with close three-part harmony, virtuosic musicianship and fearless storytelling, creating concerts that are as entertaining as they are thought-provoking.
“Rachel Sumner and her mighty trio are punching above their weight with trenchant lyrics and plenty of melodic power. Everyone should get to hear this band.” – Darol Anger
“Strong songwriting and a pure voice, Rachel Sumner brings joy and energy to the stage” – Livingston Taylor
“A bullish band packed with skills….ready to go” – Americana Highways
Fresh off their 2025 Telluride Bluegrass Band Contest win, Rachel Sumner & Traveling Light are a Boston-based string band making music that blends folk tradition with feminist storytelling, poetic detail, and a little grit. At the center is Sumner’s songwriting—rooted in history, myth, and personal reckoning—carried by close harmonies, upright bass, acoustic guitar, and fiddle. The trio features Kat Wallace on fiddle and vocals and Mike Siegel on upright bass and vocals, whose playing brings both tension and tenderness to the sound.
Their sound is spare and intimate, sometimes eerie, sometimes sweet, always intentional. They call it Femericana—sharp-edged Americana with a splash of feminine rage.
Sumner has performed at the Library of Congress, where five of her original songs are now archived, and was a 2024 winner of the Kerrville New Folk competition. Her song “Radium Girls (Curie Eleison)” struck a nerve—streamed over 300,000 times and picked up by dancers, theater directors, and deep listeners who saw themselves in its story. It’s been tattooed on arms, sung in audition rooms, and carried into classrooms and protests.
Rachel Sumner & Traveling Light has toured coast to coast, bringing their spellbinding live show to listening rooms, libraries, farms, and festivals across the country. They’ve appeared at Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, Earl Scruggs Festival, IBMA, and legendary folk listening rooms like Caffé Lena and Club Passim, where their shows have become a staple of the Boston folk scene.
Madam, He’s a Madman:
Radium Girls:
Yodelay:
“Rachel Sumner and her mighty trio are punching above their weight with trenchant lyrics and plenty of melodic power. Everyone should get to hear this band.” – Darol Anger
“Strong songwriting and a pure voice, Rachel Sumner brings joy and energy to the stage” – Livingston Taylor
“A bullish band packed with skills….ready to go” – Americana Highways
Fresh off their 2025 Telluride Bluegrass Band Contest win, Rachel Sumner & Traveling Light are a Boston-based string band making music that blends folk tradition with feminist storytelling, poetic detail, and a little grit. At the center is Sumner’s songwriting—rooted in history, myth, and personal reckoning—carried by close harmonies, upright bass, acoustic guitar, and fiddle. The trio features Kat Wallace on fiddle and vocals and Mike Siegel on upright bass and vocals, whose playing brings both tension and tenderness to the sound.
Their sound is spare and intimate, sometimes eerie, sometimes sweet, always intentional. They call it Femericana—sharp-edged Americana with a splash of feminine rage.
Sumner has performed at the Library of Congress, where five of her original songs are now archived, and was a 2024 winner of the Kerrville New Folk competition. Her song “Radium Girls (Curie Eleison)” struck a nerve—streamed over 300,000 times and picked up by dancers, theater directors, and deep listeners who saw themselves in its story. It’s been tattooed on arms, sung in audition rooms, and carried into classrooms and protests.
Rachel Sumner & Traveling Light has toured coast to coast, bringing their spellbinding live show to listening rooms, libraries, farms, and festivals across the country. They’ve appeared at Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, Earl Scruggs Festival, IBMA, and legendary folk listening rooms like Caffé Lena and Club Passim, where their shows have become a staple of the Boston folk scene.
Madam, He’s a Madman:
Radium Girls:
Yodelay: