It’s the quiet awe of wild places that most animates Natalie Spears’ music. Outside her home in Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley, she listens to the language of birds, notices patterns of migration and sees the cosmos in the countryside. For Spears, the natural world offers a constant invitation to open the aperture of life to something wider, something wilder. Her most recent album, “ Hymn of Wild Things,” chronicles her experience of wonder, loss and metamorphosis. This is a collection of songs about the intimate corners of humanity, hers and ours alike.
Spears is best-known for her work with fiddling singer Lizzy Plotkin. The duo’s album, “Just Over the Ridge,” was one of Folk Alliance’s top ten charting albums of the year and made number seven on Billboard’s bluegrass album chart. Spears has played the John Hartford Memorial Festival, Blackpot Festival, Palisade Roots Festival, Chautauqua Community House, Crested Butte Performing Arts Center and the Wheeler Opera House. When she’s not touring, Spears can be found writing songs with veterans, creating the space and trust for them to tell their stories and process their trauma through music. Alongside teaching, working with veterans is one of the ways she practices reciprocity—sharing the gift of music that has given her so much. Hymn of Wild Things threads opposites together: love with loss; tradition with innovation; and the human experience with a more-than-human world.
