“Femericana”: Rachel Sumner & Traveling Light in Pine Plains
The Boston string band plays songs about saints, scientists, and stubborn women in Banning Hall.
Saturday, October 24, 7:30–9:30pm | Pine Plains, NY | $30–$40 in advance, $40–$50 at the door
Rachel Sumner & Traveling Light, a Boston trio that won the 2025 Telluride Bluegrass Band Contest, plays Banning Hall at the Stissing Center on October 24. The band is Sumner on guitar and lead vocals, Kat Wallace on fiddle, and Mike Siegel on upright bass. Everybody sings. They call their style “Femericana”—sharp-edged Americana with a splash of feminine rage.
Sumner’s songs draw on history, myth, and personal reckoning, and on her site she describes them as being about saints, scientists, and stubborn women. Their latest release, The Traveling Light Sessions, reworks her studio album Heartless Things, recorded live around one microphone with no overdubs.
The band won the Telluride contest in June 2025, and Sumner says they were the first trio to take the prize. The win came with an opening slot at the 2026 Telluride Bluegrass Festival. Sumner and Wallace work at Boston’s Club Passim, where the band’s shows are a staple, and the group has played Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, the Earl Scruggs Music Festival, IBMA, and Caffè Lena. Sumner was a 2024 Kerrville New Folk winner and has played at the Library of Congress, where five of her songs are archived.
Banning Hall, Stissing Center for Arts & Culture, 2950 Church Street, Pine Plains, NY. Tickets at thestissingcenter.org or 518-771-3339.
Written by
After a decade of writing for RI (along with many other publications and organizations) Jamie took over as editor in 2025. He has a masters in journalism from NYU, a wonderful wife, two kids and a Carolina dog named Zelda.
