A THRILL OF HOPE

From Boston-based singer-songwriter Patrice Taddonio comes a folk-pop holiday album that captures both the melancholy of the season and its quiet, thrilling hope. Features one original song and eight creative, memorable reimaginings of Christmas classics old & new.

"The music of this emotionally intense season has long resonated with me -- but in making this album, I immersed myself in the long and varied Christmas catalog to an entirely new degree," Taddonio says. "From stumbling across an obscure verse of 'It Came Upon a Midnight Clear' that speaks to our times with lightning-bolt clarity, to discovering that 'What Child Is This' and 'We Three Kings' make excellent medley-bedfellows, to being inspired to write my own song about Christmas, the passage of time, and the ebbs and flows of optimism, I’ve found such fulfillment along the way — and I’m thrilled to share the results with you."

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Patrice Taddonio wrote her first song at the age of 5 — a little vocal ditty encouraging a family member not to worry.

She’s been creating music that explores themes of connection and yearning ever since.

Now an indie-folk singer-songwriter living in Boston, MA, Taddonio writes and performs songs that grapple with the complexities of trying to live a life that's meaningful in a world where immense beauty and tremendous suffering co-exist.

With award-winning lyrics that probe yearning, hope, love, blame and forgiveness, her music often explores what it means to stay optimistic in the dark.

“I’ve found that ideas and subjects that are sometimes difficult to talk about are much easier to write and sing about — and that engaging deeply with music is one of the most consistent ways to seek and find truth,” Taddonio says.

Taddonio’s song, “Hardest of All” — a probing exploration of the challenges of knowing your own heart — won the Honorable Mention in American Songwriter magazine’s May/June 2017 Lyrics Contest. It’s the lead track on her December 2016 eight-song album, “Better Than That,” which has been praised for its hauntingly beautiful melodies and reflective, incisive lyrics. Additionally, Her lyrics to “Survivor’s Guilt” won 4th place in the magazine’s November/December 2017 contest, and were printed in full in the issue.

“I hope people who listen to these songs will enjoy them, of course,” Taddonio says. “I also hope that they might come away feeling a little bit less alone in whatever struggles they may be facing — that they’re reminded that there’s often more to the story than what we can easily understand, and that we’re all more than our worst moments.”

"More Than the Sum," Taddonio’s March 2017 EP, is a compact, powerful statement from a fresh new voice in indie pop-folk, for fans of Lissie, Leonard Cohen, Brandi Carlile & Gretchen Peters. It features five thought-provoking original songs that explore what it means — and why it matters — to be who you are. Recorded in an intimate, home-studio setting on acoustic guitar and vocals, "More Than the Sum" is the work of a singer-songwriter at the top of her game, fusing lyrics that will move and challenge you with melodies that will stick with you.

Taddonio’s musical journey has been decades in the making. She taught herself to play the piano by ear on her grandparents’ piano as a kid, later taking a year of lessons, and then taught herself guitar as a teen. While growing up in Pennsylvania, she and a friend won a local orchestra’s songwriting competition for young composers. She continued to write and perform music on guitar and vocals throughout high school and college, self-releasing two CDs from her dorm room.

Now, Taddonio is a resident musician at Short Path Distillery in Everett, MA, where she plays 90-minute sets of original songs on piano, guitar, and vocals. She has performed sets at the South Shore Folk Music Club (Kingston, MA), The Plough and Stars (Cambridge, MA), and Thunder Road (Somerville, MA). Taddonio is also a frequent performer at Boston-area open mic nights.

Her new Christmas album, “A Thrill of Hope,” was released in December 2017.

Check her out on Bandcamp, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Reverb Nation.