Press and Community Projects

Rachael has often been found playing solo at local restaurants and music venues in the years before the pandemic.  People have described her sound as, "one person who sounds like a whole band".  She brings together her fiddle and clawhammer banjo playing with singing backed by fiddle, banjo, and guitar and plays a mix of upbeat Appalachian and Irish fiddle tunes, traditional solo Old-Time clawhammer banjo pieces, somber ballads, and old Americana.  

Rachael started teaching violin and fiddle at the Taos Waldorf School in 2014 and stayed until the school's closing in 2016.  She then founded the strings program at the Taos Youth Music School and taught there until the school closed due to Covid-19.  She currently teaches elementary and middle/high school grades after-school classes at the Peñasco Independent Schools and 3-5 grade violin classes at Roots and Wings Charter School.

In 2018, banjo player and singer Billy Stewart, guitarist and singer/songwriter Kate Mann, and fiddle player/singer/banjo player Rachael Penn formed the popular Taos band, Crooked and Cracked.  The group blends old-time Appalachian music and contemporary tunes with a unique, high-energy, vocally driven sound and frequently plays at local music venues and festivals.  The band is planning on releasing their first album next summer.

Teaming up with part-time Taoseño and guitar wizard and singer, Ward Chandler, Six Feet Apart was created to fill a music void during the 2020 pandemic, holding small neighborhood outdoor music gatherings and online performances.  

Crooked and Cracked was invited to play and teach at Southwest Picker's Red River Traditional Music Festival in 2021 and are expecting to play their 2022 festival.  Rachael is actively working to start a monthly Old-Time Jam in Taos County and is a frequent participant at local and regional traditional music jams and festivals (taking master classes from as many musicians as she possibly can).

Rachael has been a frequent music performer for Taos Democratic Party events.  She created the 2018 "Get Out the Vote Festival" in partnership with the Taos Democratic Party and has opened for local political events including a benefit appearance by Jim Hightower and Governor Lujan Grisham's 2022 re-election launch.  Rachael also teamed up with fellow musicians Tara Somerville and Billy Stewart, to put together an open-mic style 'anti-inauguration concert' to raise spirits in the community on Inauguration Day 2017.