Artist: Rachel Sumner & Traveling Light
Hometown: Boston, Massachusetts
Song: “Head East” (Traveling Light Sessions)
Album: Heartless Things
Release Date: November 7, 2024 (video); May 10, 2024 (album)
(Editor’s Note: BGS is excited to premiere a new series of live performance videos from singer-songwriter and band leader Rachel Sumner. Over the next four weeks, BGS readers will enjoy four live song performances of tracks pulled from Sumner’s latest album, Heartless Things, and performed by her touring trio, Traveling Light. Stay tuned for more, coming next week.)
In Their Words: “‘Head East’ is our next release from Heartless Things (Traveling Light Sessions). It has an extra special place in my heart, because it was the first song I ever wrote. 13 years ago, I moved to Boston from the Mojave Desert in California (where I grew up) and felt such a connection with the city and a feeling of possibility that I got there – a feeling I didn’t find in my hometown. This song was a plea to my younger brother to get out and find his good fortune elsewhere, just as I had.
“For this song, Kat Wallace trades her fiddle for the tenor guitar, and Mike Siegel adds a sublime third-part harmony that makes the chorus feel like heaven. ‘Head East’ has had many lives and arrangements, but this one is quite possibly my favorite.” – Rachel Sumner
Track Credits:
Rachel Sumner – banjo, lead vocals
Kat Wallace – tenor guitar, harmonies
Mike Siegel – bass, harmonies
Video Credits: Engineered by Zachariah Hickman.
Filmed by Lindsay Straw.
Mixed by Rachel Sumner.
Mastered by Dan Cardinal.
Video edited by Rachel Sumner.
Photo Credit: Bri Gately
