Poetry & Music!
Original and Traditional Folk-bluegrass for All Ages!
Naomi Sommers is a singer-songwriter who grew up playing folk, jazz and bluegrass with her brother and parents in the Sommers-Rosenthal Family Band. She has recorded as a singer and multi-instrumentalist since childhood, and toured all over the US and Europe. Now rooted in Ithaca, Naomi spends her time teaching and performing music and songwriting (as well as studying to be a social worker).
Lately, Naomi performs in the Finger Lakes region as a duo with fiddler/mandolin-player Rick Manning, travels back to New England for solo shows and to reunite with past musical partners such as songwriter Lisa Bastoni, and with her dad Phil Rosenthal and brother Daniel Rosenthal as the Sommers Rosenthal Family Band. She continues to write songs, and has a new album to be released in 2025. This record was features the skillful harmony vocals & guitar playing, and was co-produced with Jefferson Hamer. It was recorded at her dad’s studio in Connecticut (with dad Phil Rosenthal running the reel-to-reel tape machine)! Jefferson and Naomi recorded the songs live together in the studio, with overdubs sent in from the secret hide-outs of musicians such as Alec Spiegelman and Daniel Rosenthal, and some recorded by Naomi and Jefferson in Maine. Look for more info about the record at the end of this year!
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.