Life on the road

Roots music sisters try to make a career on routes less traveled | Susan Olasky

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Is it possible to make money from a dream? Sisters Erin and Amber Rogers think so. They have given themselves five years to see whether their love of bluegrass music can translate into a career.

As Scenic Roots, the sisters are on the road for weeks at a time. In April and May they traveled east from their home in Kansas, getting as far as Asheville, N.C., before winding their way back home. This summer they will head west, hoping to find willing ears in farmer's markets and coffee shops.

Younger sister Amber (21) plans their tours, relying on venue recommendations from friends, acquaintances, and online sources. They travel in a van filled with instruments—two mountain dulcimers for Erin (23), fiddles and a banjo for Amber—and the soundboard they received as a present upon graduating from the bluegrass program at South Plains College in Texas.