An Evening of American Roots Music: Blues, Bluegrass and Old-Time

The music of Cumberland features the traditional songs and tunes of Southern Appalachia accompanied by the guitar, banjo, tenor banjo and mandolin. Jim and Lynda feature true old-style harmonies drawing upon the extensive and well loved repertoire of the Carter Family and their circle of early bluegrass and string band artists. The duo’s Lynda Shuster is a lively, unfettered 5-string banjo player, vocalist and finger style guitarist. Jim Rohrer picks up where Lynda leaves off with a fine old time mandolin, guitar and vocal style. Jim toured and recorded back in the day with the popular bluegrass and gospel band, Southern Rail, and currently charms the airways as a host of WOMR’s Bradford Street Bluegrass. Lynda also contributes her talents to the local bluegrass band, Bourbon Sunset. Cumberland is fresh back from a stint at the Joe Val Bluegrass Festival in Framingham, MA.

Martin Grosswendt, internationally known as an interpreter of pre-war blues and other roots music, began his career accompanying and recording with the legendary folk musicians such as U Utah Phillips, Rosalie Sorrels, and Jim Ringer and Mary McCaslin. Master of pre-war blues and other southern traditional music, Martin is a known entity at festivals and venues across the U.S., both as a performer and conveyor of the lore of American roots music. Susanne Salem-Schatz is a veteran of the Boston roots music scene and slips seamlessly into any genre, making it her own – soulful blues singer one minute, sassy honky-tonk gal the next. Touring together since 2015, Martin and Suzanne have performed in key venues up and down the Eastern states. Their CD, New Hats, was released in 2015, with a new recording in the works.