Poetry & Music!
Original and Traditional Folk-bluegrass for All Ages!
Naomi Sommers is an Ithaca, NY-based singer-songwriter, guitar-, banjo-, mandolin- and flute-player. She performs solo, with her family (as the Sommers Rosenthal Family Band), and a number of other groups, and has recorded and performed professionally since childhood.
BIG News of 2020 is that Naomi is set to release an EP of original songs, co-produced with Jefferson Hamer, recorded in December at her dad’s studio in Connecticut (with dad Phil Rosenthal running the reel-to-reel tape machine)! Jefferson and Naomi recorded these 5 songs live together in the studio, and now a few overdubs are being added from isolated hide-outs across the northeast.
More about Naomi…
Over the years Naomi has sung and played flute, banjo, and guitar on more than 20 records released on her father Phil’s independent American Melody label, and has recorded three albums under her own name, as well as one with Lisa Bastoni as the slow-grass duo Gray Sky Girls.
Naomi’s album, “Gentle As The Sun”, was recorded in Nashville, produced by the acclaimed musician/producer Jim Rooney (John Prine, Iris Dement, Nanci Griffith, Bonnie Raitt). The album was engineered by David Fergusson (Johnny Cash/Rick Rubin) and features a backup band of some of Nashville’s finest musicians, and some family and friends as well. The resulting collection of songs is the culmination of years of devotion to the craft of songwriting and to the merging of traditional and contemporary styles in American music.
While living Germany for nearly a decade, Naomi toured in the Netherlands and the UK. “Gentle As the Sun” was released by Continental Records in the Netherlands, and received stellar reviews & radio airplay in the UK and Europe.
In fall 2016, Naomi released a family album with her father and brother, melding jazz (brother Daniel plays trumpet) and bluegrass (father Phil is an accomplished bluegrass musician and songwriter).
Currently, Naomi teaches classes and workshops on singing and songwriting to elementary-aged students through the public schools in Ithaca and beyond. (She also now works for the Coalition for Healthy School Food as Ithaca Program Manager, bringing healthy, plant-based food, nutrition education, and cooking classes to students in the Ithaca City School District.)
Other recent music projects include a new Ithaca bluegrass band with veteran musicians Rick Manning, Dana Paul and Alice Saltonstall (tentatively called “The Afterlife, )duo shows with Massachusetts-based singer-songwriter Lisa Bastoni, and re-uniting with another long-time duo partner Dan Tressler for performances and a record in-progress.