Natalie Padilla

New album “E O S T R E”

Released April 22, 2025 Earth Day

Hey there, thanks for stopping by my website! I am glad to be sharing this new project with you, I hope you like it.

Since this is an instrumental album and the titles are likely unfamiliar, I thought I’d tell you a bit more about the project. After making my previous album Montana Wildflower, I knew I wanted to work with Quinn Bachand again, he’s one of those musicians and producers that just knows what you want and then adds their own unique twist that blows your mind. The opportunity arose when we were awarded a partial funding grant from Creative BC, meant for non-BC residents to travel to British Columbia to record an album with Canadian musicians and artists. My goal was to make an instrumental album that was a cohesive work, more like a symphony with separate movements. I chose forests as a theme because for me they are an inspirational demonstration of how so many species can live amongst one another in a peaceful, vibrant and supportive way. The album and track titles are named after nature deities related to forests from multiple cultures, Eostre being the Germanic goddess of the dawn and radiant light. Nearly all the music was written after the album was conceptualized and recording dates were set. So, last November I flew to Canada and treated myself to 10 days of recording in Quinn’s home studio in Victoria, on most days we took breaks to visit the local forests and record nature sounds, which can be heard throughout the album. Now it’s here, out there to share with the world, I hope you like it! Here are the specs: 

Music written by Natalie Padilla
Arranged by Natalie Padilla & Quinn Bachand
Production, Engineering and Mixing Quinn Bachand
Mastering Jonathan Anderson
Design & photography Béatrix Méthé
Fiddle, banjo, guitar (4, 5) Natalie Padilla
Guitar, harmonica (6), fiddle (7) Quinn Bachand
Vocals (1,2) Béatrix Méthé
Piano (6,7) Daniel Lapp
Dulcimer (5,8) Simon Chrisman

… wonders of the forest are endless, ancient cultures have been inspired and humbled by their power, journeys met with surprise and often found not alone…Eostre, Germanic goddess of the dawn and radiant light, Terra, Roman goddess of the earth - Vayu, Hindu god of wind and air - Agni, Hindu god of fire - Areg, Armenian god of the sun - Simbi, Kongo and Hoodoo spirit of water and forest - Aja, Yoruba goddess and patron of forest animals and healers - Ngen, Mapuche spirits and protectors of nature - Tala, Philippine goddess of the morning and evening stars - Flora, Roman goddess of flowers and spring …

This album is dedicated to Mooshi

Supported by Creative BC and the Province of British Columbia

“Natalie Padilla’s album Eostre is a restorative, healing and nourishing soundscape crafted with a depth full of wonder. Inspired by forests and ancient cultures, the nine tracks, all original, are each their own journeys into a lush nook of the woods. The deeper you listen, the more you hear. Influences of Old Time, Celtic and French-Canadian permeate through this collection to create a sound that is uniquely Natalie. In today's cluttered and head-spinning world, Eostre provides a refreshing spin on traditionally-inspired acoustic music that firmly plants Natalie Padilla as one of today’s most innovative Roots instrumentalists.” -Brad Kolodner, Folk Alley & Bluegrass Country Radio

“A very natural blend of Celtic and Americana, Eostre actually starts like a classical orchestra tuning up but then quickly slips into smooth oldtime fiddle and banjo on Terra, the first of nine tracks all by Natalie Padilla and all named for different gods or spirits from around the world. Although this is new music, it has an old soul - the gentle Vayu with its airy backdrop, the more urgent Agni’s driving country beat, and the dreamy Areg with Padilla leading on guitar are all instantly appealing, easy listening but also inviting us to dance or play along.
Natalie plays fiddle, banjo and guitar, but she’s not alone on this album. Producer Quinn Bachand plies his jazz guitar plus touches of fiddle and harmonica, Vancouver fiddle icon Daniel Lapp adds piano, and there’s mountain dulcimer from Simon Chrisman. Eostre has no lyrics, no songs in that sense, but there are snatches of vocals from Béatrix Méthé woven into a rich carpet of sounds behind the melodies here.
Nigeria’s forest spirit Aja must have attended a Flanagan Brothers concert in her youth: this piece bridges the gulf between Africa and Ireland with a gorgeous slow reel or barndance, followed by a crooked pair of Irish jigs dedicated to the Ngen spirits of the South American narrows. Eostre wraps up with an oldtime clawhammer banjo tune, a growling contemporary fiddle reel, and a country waltz to bring a tear to the eyes of Roman nature goddess Flora. I’ll be learning this tune: it’s so good, I can’t believe it’s not butter! Smooth, tasty, and true to the tradition - spread Eostre around, and sink your teeth into its final tear-it-up hoe-down medley.” -Alex Monaghan, Irish Music Magazine

“Released on Earth Day (April 22), the new album, Eostre (Heartseed Music ****), of fiddle tune compositions from American fiddler Natalie Padilla is high concept. Each track is a homage to a forest or tree god/goddess from various cultures around the world. Great idea, which functionally just means that Padilla has written some really nice fiddle tunes that meld old-time and Celtic influences pretty effortlessly (as she also does in her band Low Lily). Producer Quinn Bachand from British Columbia has a light but very sensitive touch on the recording and some of the arrangements are just *chef’s kiss*.” - Devin Léger, Songlines

“I first enjoyed the music of Natalie Padilla through her work, both recorded and live, with international touring band Low Lily. She is, however, a well-established artist in her own right, being a two-time national fiddle champion (1994 and 2015), the 2015 winner of the Rockygrass Fiddle Contest, and the Kentucky State Fiddle Champion for 2022. She also plays and composes for banjo. Following on from her botanically inspired CDs Fireweed (2019) and Montana Wildflower (2023), the nature theme is continued here through compositions inspired by the natural world and its traditional spirits. Eostre, the Germanic goddess of light and the dawn, supplies the name of this collection. Arrangements are by Padilla and Canadian multi-instrumentalist Quinn Bachand - who, as on her last album, also takes a leading role as a player. Padilla and Bachand are joined by Béatrix Méthé (vocals), Daniel Lapp (piano), and Simon Chrisman (dulcimer). The opening track, Terra, sets the tone for the universality the album aims at. It opens with an uncredited harmonium (or synth?) drone-with-overtones, an impressionistic effect of nature struggling to full awareness of the dawn. This settles into a descending rahtata-tah-tah minor pentatonic fiddle and banjo pattern suggesting the Earth's creations getting down to their daily business. A segué into a more fluid and ascending development hints at oriental and african influences, and the world is awake. Melodically simple, but changing time signatures and instrumentation turn this into a very pleasing musical meditation.

Vayu, named for a Hindu god of air and wind, although solidly anchored to a rolling alternation of 4/4 and 2/4 beats, has enough of the air about it to make the listener feel like dancing. Areg, Armenian god of the sun. The melody, alternating major and minor, starts on guitar, doubles on banjo, and a lightly-chorded fiddle joins in. A deep rumble from the harmonium has the "dawn come up like thunder" as it climbs behind the other instruments before tailing off into a gentle warbling outro. Tala, after the Philippine goddess of the morning and evening stars, shows, in its two sections, something of the feeling of someone quietly contemplating the dawn as well as of an early evening get-together of friends or family.This is a gathering of fine musicians playing excellent and well-produced original music. As with her previous releases, Natalie Padilla's compositions, and those co-authored by herself and Quinn Bachand, while working within traditional modes, possess melodic and atmospheric novelty and interest aplenty to please the most demanding listener.” -Bob Leslie, FATEA UK

GOING GOING GONE

“Light to Dark” oil painting by Easthampton, MA artist Laura Radwell, the perfect cover art for Going Going Gone, single released June 20, 2024. It’s a ballad, written on the summer solstice of 2023, about creating space for new beginnings and following instincts. Canadian multi-instrumentalist Quinn Bachand produced, engineered and mixed, mastering by Trevor Buckingham.

MONTANA WILDFLOWER

Montana Wildflower is my third album of original folk music, it’s an instrumental celtic fiddle album with a touch of oldtime. Each original tune was named after a wildflower found in Montana (where I’m from!). Released March 2023, recorded in Victor, ID, engineered and mixed by Quinn Bachand, mastered by Charles-Émile Beaudin, photo and artwork by Catherine Young.

Reviews for Montana Wildflower

“…it was her album of fiddle compositions, Montana Wildflower, that I kept coming back to again and again this year. Beautifully recorded, she fiddles with an intensity that belies how carefully each note is laid on the neck of the instrument. But she’s also a great tune composer. Instrumental dance tunes are usually learned and taught by ear, passed down from olden times, and though many young players compose their own tunes, it’s not as common that these tunes are as captivating as Padilla’s. As a fiddler myself, I wanted to jump to my fiddle to learn each one! The reason she can compose tunes so ably is because she’s taken the time to learn multiple traditions of fiddling inside and out. There’s a great respect I can hear in these new compositions of hers.” - Devon Léger, Folk Alley Favorites:Best Trad of 2023

“Listening to Montana Wildflower it's easy to think that most of these tunes have been arund for generations: the slipjig on Lady Slipper could come from an Altan album, the delightfully crooked oldtime reel Bittercress could be a version of Sally Ann. The waltz Forget-Me-Not is in classic country style, reminding me of compositions by Frankie Rodgers, Andy Dejarlis, Reg Bouvette and others. Prairie Flax starts with one of many O'Keeffe slides, an old tune indeed, given a treatment somewhere between Sliabh Luachra and Cecil Sharp House. A simple banjo melody and a sweet Celtic air bring us to a traditional oldtime reel and the final hard-hitting Americana medley of two contemporary tunes, dark and earthy, underpinning the wildflowers and ending this album on solid rock. Natalie Padilla's fiddle music fits right in, and takes these traditions to new and interesting places.” - Alex Monaghan, FolkWorld

“…All in all, Montana Wildflower is a tour-de-force, a great shop-window for Natalie Padilla's strong compositional abilities and the masterful playing and strong musical rapport shared by herself and Quinn Bachand.” - Bob Leslie, Fatea UK

“Forget Me Not” feature in Strings Magazine, July-August 2023 issue

Bluegrass Country Radio interview with Brad Kolodner, March 2023

Americana UK feature, March 2023

Bluegrass Today feature, March 2023

Bluegrass Situation feature, March 2023