Reviews

Artist:Natalie Padilla
Album: Montana Wildflower
Label: Heartseed
Tracks: 8
Website: https://www.nataliepadillamusic.com/

Natalie Padilla is probably best known on this side of the Big Water as the newest member of international touring band Low Lily. In North America, however, she is 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 the banjo.

In addition to two solo albums to her name, she's to be found on three releases by Colorado-based Jamgrass band Masontown, as well as two collaborative recordings of Irish and Old-Time music respectively. So she raises high expectations with her latest release, Montana Wildflower, and more than lives up to them.

Taking her cue from her botanically named 2019 CD Fireweed, this is a collection of 7 Padilla original tunes, each named, as the title makes clear, for American wildflowers, plus her take on the old Kentucky melody Court the Widow.

Arrangements are by Padilla and Canadian multi-instrumentalist Quinn Bachand - who also takes a leading role as a player on the album. Padilla and Bachand play all the instruments featured here (apart from one appearance by mandolinist Ben Winship on Forget-me-not), so there's a fair amount of multi-tracking.

The opening track is Lady Slipper - named for a tall-tendrilled desert plant . As befits the title, it's a medium--paced slipjig with a nicely graceful feel to it.

Bittercress is a wetlands plant and the title is therefore appropriately applied to a Celtic reel - these isles aren't exactly renowned for sunny weather! It sports an interesting line in cross-rhythms, giving the tune little extra pushes - although tending to confuse toe-tapping listeners!

Forget-me-not evokes the name's more romantic associations rather than little blue flowers. It's an elegant and intimate waltz that builds in intensity and warmth as it proceeds.

Prairie Flax is a jig - inspired perhaps by the use of flax as a weaving material? The tune certainly weaves in and out of traditional jig rhythms, chopping and adding beats here and there to make the melody jump over the barlines. There's also a bit of a duelling feeling between the fiddles and the harmonica. It has a definite Iouch of the Green Isle about it, but is more of a virtuoso piece than something an Irish dancer could step right into.

Shooting Star is an Americant succulent found in prairies and open meadows, and there's certainly a lovely light airy feel about this lilting 4/4 banjo tune. The banjo and guitar, as with the fiddle tracks, get in between the beats to create delightful and unexpected twists and turns.

Balsamroot is a member of the sunflower family, native to the Western states. As its name implies, it can be used medicinally, and the first part of this track certainly has a soothing feel. It's in 4/4 with a light strathspey-like lilt to it and a very pretty melody that goes right up the strings. Halfway through, it breaks into a fullblooded reel with fiddle, tenor banjo, and bouzouki taking turns on the lead.

Court the Widow breaks the floral pattern and takes us back to Old-Time roots. It's a medium paced 2/2 reel from Kentucky that's a US sessions staple. Here it serves as a jaunty fiddle duel between Bachand and Padilla. Some very nice playing here.

The tunes conclude with Larkspur, a lively reel which I heard Natalie play onstage during her appearance at Celtic Connections this year with Low Lily. In this recording, it starts as possibly the most traditionally Celtic-sounding piece on the album with fiddle taking the lead, and guitar and bouzouki providing the rhythmic chops, before seguéing into a faster second half, adding banjo, bass, and percussion to give the piece a much heavier, more aggressive feel. I can only guess that any botanical inspiration came from this pretty plant's darker reputation as a poison!

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

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