Rachel Sumner with special guest Raina Rose
Praised by audiences for her powerful, lonesome voice and haunting songs, Rachel Sumner carefully spins melodies that get caught in your head and delivers them “with an attitude and drive in her guitar playing...sure to strike a chord and dig deep into your heart. ” (Red Line Roots)
Rachel may be best known as the former guitarist and singer-songwriter from bluegrass string phenom Twisted Pine, but it is in her recent venture as a solo artist that we are beginning to fully recognize her dynamism as a writer and performer. Whether she’s fronting her new band of lush, low-voiced strings or appearing with only a guitar, you’ll be mesmerized by her elegantly intricate arrangements and captivated by the delivery of each and every word. Now, you may be getting the idea that all of her songs are delicate, crystalline confessionals; they are most certainly not. Rachel is both a Willie Nelson and a Patsy Cline of indie-folk - writing the heartfelt but catchy songs and conveying their emotional complexity with candor and an achingly beautiful yodel. And it is her diverse love of pop, classical, country and everything in between that she draws upon to synthesize into her own unique sound.
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’s debut solo EP Anything Worth Doing was released in November 2018, and she has begun work on the follow-up to that, her debut full-length record due out in 2020.
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As the second daughter of a country music historian and a Jewish poet, Americana musician and songwriter Raina Rose revels in sharing with you her beautifully twisted, yet refreshingly optimistic perspective on the world. Her unique voice and exceptional guitar playing transcend age, gender, generation, and even catch the ears of those who aren't typically into acoustic guitar-driven songwriting. With a naturalist's eye, an artist's pen, and a lion's attack, Raina lays everything she has on the line; she makes you feel as if she's your best friend whispering a honeysuckle-sweet secret in your ear, warmly inviting you into a joyfully intimate and darkly candid conversation. It's that ability to forge her own path in the world of music that sets Raina apart from her contemporaries, and her “no holds barred, lay it on the line” brand of Americana that secures Raina’s place in music history as more than a mere footnote or a passing trend.
Born in Reagan-era Los Angeles, Raina moved to Portland, OR with her family in 1988. Growing up in a house alive with ‘60s pop and good ole' fashioned country music, Raina was given a guitar at age eleven and sent around the corner for lessons. By the time she hit high school—attending the same school as Elliott Smith and Matt Groening—Raina more often than not shined classes to write heart-wrenching teenage love songs in Portland's lush, green public parks. Upon graduating, Raina moved to the Oregon coast and taught environmental science to youngsters while basking in the majestic silence of 500 acres of ancient forest and foggy beachfront. It was the blissful solitude of this Thoreau-ian lifestyle that made Raina realize she wanted to make music for people, to sing for a living.
Raina has toured relentlessly for the better part of the last ten years, supporting such acts as Jill Sobule, The Bacon Brothers, Loudon Wainwright III and Tracy Grammer, and sharing the stage with contemporaries such as John Elliott, Rebecca Loebe, Jonathan Byrd, AJ Roach, and Anthony da Costa. Now married to bass player, Andrew Pressman (Jimmie LaFave, Sam Baker, Ben Kweller, Carrie Elkin) and a mother of two young boys, Raina tours less often and more succinctly. After 8 years of living in a car and playing over 200 dates a year, this is a welcome change. Her travels have taken her everywhere across the USA and Europe, including such venues and gigs as the High Sierra Music Festival, Vancouver Island Music Festival, The Kerrville Folk Festival, The Cactus Cafe (Austin, TX), The Kessler Theater (Dallas, TX), Club Passim (Boston, MA), and The Birchmere (Alexandria, VA).
