Bedford Town Hall

On May 16, New Song welcomes Rachel Sumner &amp; Traveling Light, a Boston-based string band blending folk tradition, feminist storytelling, poetic detail, and just enough grit.
Sumner—formerly of Twisted Pine—has earned wide recognition, including the 2021 John Lennon Songwriting Award (Folk), a Kerrville New Folk Competition win, and five original songs archived at the Library of Congress. As a group, Traveling Light has won the 2023 Thomas Point Beach Bluegrass Festival competition and the 2025 Telluride Bluegrass Band Contest and has been featured four consecutive years by WBUR/NPR as a top Massachusetts entry in the Tiny Desk Contest.
🎧 Listen: <a href="https://bit.ly/rstl" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://bit.ly/rstl</a>&nbsp;and buy tickets at&nbsp;<a href="https://newsongbedford.org/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">newsongbedford.org/</a>

Local Event: New Song Music Series Concert with Rachel Sumner & Traveling Light

Middlesex County

Bedford

Massachusetts

New Song Music Series Concert with Rachel...

On May 16, New Song welcomes Rachel Sumner & Traveling Light, a Boston-based string band blending folk tradition, feminist...

New Song Music Series Concert with Rachel Sumner & Traveling Light

In April 2025, Peter Mulvey and Jenna Nicholls, along with guitarist Ross Bellenoit, traveled to Floyd, a small mountain town located in the Blue Ridge Highlands of Southwest Virginia, for five uninterrupted days of recording. What emerged is Floyd Mercantile — a record that feels both intimate and timeless.
The makeshift studio was a decommissioned general store called (you guessed it!) Floyd Mercantile — a weathered wooden building standing across the road from an open pasture where cows wandered and grazed in the gentle early spring. (One cow even volunteered to be on the album cover.) Inside those old walls, the trio recorded the album live — no isolation booths, no heavy overdubbing — just three musicians in a room, listening closely and letting the songs unfold in real time.
The sessions were recorded by Jeff Oehler and filmed in their entirety by partner Sue Bibeau and their associate Skylar Locke. Together, Sue and Jeff comprise Beehive Pro, an audio, visual, and design collective famed for their intimate recordings and thoughtfully considered visuals. They captured not just the sound, but the atmosphere — the wood floors, the daylight through the dusty windows, and the creak of the porch boards could all be considered session players on this album.
The repertoire bridges eras. Mostly comprised of songs Peter and Jenna wrote separately, there are a few gems from the Great American Songbook: “Skylark” (Hoagy Carmichael/Johnny Mercer), “Them There Eyes” (Maceo Pinkard/Doris Tauber/William Tracey), and “I’ll Be Seeing You” (Sammy Fain/Irving Kahal).
The visual and sonic tones of the project reflect the periods these songs evoke — even the newly composed tracks feel in conversation with another time. The goal was not nostalgia, but continuity: to stand inside the lineage of American song and add something honest and present to it.
Floyd Mercantile is not just an album. It’s a document of place. Of three musicians in a room. Of songs — old and new — allowed to breathe in the quiet of a Virginia afternoon. Buy tickets at&nbsp;<a href="https://newsongbedford.org/season2/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">newsongbedford.org/season2/.</a>

Local Event: Peter Mulvey and Jenna Nicholls Present: Floyd Mercantile

Peter Mulvey and Jenna Nicholls Present: Floyd...

In April 2025, Peter Mulvey and Jenna Nicholls, along with guitarist Ross Bellenoit, traveled to Floyd, a small mountain town...

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New Song Music Series Concert with Rachel Sumner & Traveling Light

MAY

16

7:30 PM

Bedford Town Hall, 10 Mudge Way, Bedford, MA

Peter Mulvey and Jenna Nicholls Present: Floyd Mercantile

JUN

20

7:30 PM

Bedford Town Hall, 10 Mudge Way, Bedford, MA