By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

The duo selected for the Hays Arts Council Music Residency in celebration of Kansas Day are award-winners and have been nominated for two Grammys.

Scenic Roots is a sister duo, Erin and Amber Rogers, from Concordia, which combines old-time mountain melodies, bluegrass drive, Irish traditions and down-home humor. Using mountain dulcimer, fiddle, claw-hammer banjo, hammered dulcimer and powerful vocals, they are keeping mountain traditions alive while adding their own creative flair to every song.

“This is such a great way of broadening what we’ve had in the past for our Kansas Day Music Residency,” said HAC Executive Director Brenda Meder. “Scenic Roots brings a different variety of instruments and songs that are the music melting pot that is Kansas.”

Erin and Amber Rogers  grew up making music together. Older sister, Erin, 27, plays mountain dulcimers and sings harmony. She won the National Mountain Dulcimer Contest in 2004 at age 17.

Amber, 25, fills out the sound with lead vocals, fiddle, claw-hammer banjo, and hammered dulcimer. She placed in the top five at the Walnut Valley Festival Fiddle Contest in Winfield in 2010 and 2011.

Both women are graduates of South Plains College’s prestigious bluegrass music program in Levelland, Texas.

The HAC weeklong music residency includes performances at 12 elementary schools in five communities:  Hays, Ellis, Victoria, Plainville and Russell.

Friday is the final day with appearances in Hays at Roosevelt and Washington Elementary schools in the morning and at Bickerdyke Elementary with Simpson Elementary school in Russell Friday afternoon.

Click HERE to watch Scenic Roots perform at Wilson Elementary in Hays.