Amber and Erin Rogers are Scenic Roots. Courtesy photo
UWNNM News:
Scenic Roots will perform a live concert in Los Alamos at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 21 at Crossroads Bible Church Auditorium, 97 East Road.
This Reverie concert will be a fundraiser for United Way of Northern New Mexico. The event is sponsored in part by Naranjo Insurance Agency, Art Montoya Dentistry, Kelly Myers of RE/MAX Los Alamos, Los Alamos Community Bank and also Ruby K’s Bagel Cafe, which is providing refreshments for the concert.
Amber and Erin Rogers are Scenic Roots. These sisters perform original and traditional Ozark, Appalachian, Bluegrass, and Celtic music on mountain dulcimer, fiddle, and clawhammer banjo. This show is part of the duo’s 2014 Reverie Concert Tour promoting their new Grammy-nominated Reverie CD. This work is nominated in the Grammy Best Folk Album and Best Folk Song categories, with results to be announced in at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards in Feb 2015. Both women have degrees in commercial music from the renowned bluegrass program at South Plains College.
Amber’s musical journey began when she started playing fiddle when she was only four. Her contest successes include the prestigious Walnut Valley Old Time Fiddle Championship. Erin’s musical journey began when she started playing piano at age five and mountain dulcimer at age seven. She won the National Mountain Dulcimer Contest at age 17, at that time the youngest ever to win this title.
In 2007, Erin was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. As she went through chemotherapy and battled her cancer, music became an important part of the healing process. Erin would take her dulcimer to play during her chemotherapy sessions and later learned other patients would ask to schedule their therapies at the same times just so they could enjoy Erin’s music. She is now cancer free and works to share the healing touch of music with others.
The Scenic Roots connection to Los Alamos comes by way of Mountain View, Ark. There the duo met Los Alamos musicians Tessa and Jonathan Dowell at the Southern Regional Dulcimer Championships. The Dowells are the Celtic duet, Taranai, and will open for the Scenic Roots concert.
Scenic Roots has recorded nine CDs. This music is available through CD Baby and as music videos on YouTube. More information about the duo is available through the Scenic Roots Facebook page and website www.ScenicRoots.com.
