There’s an overarching theme running through everything that Natalie Layne does. Joy. The authenticity of her joy is a fountain of living water flowing through her life and into her music. The Colorado Springs native walks with radiance found in her faith and confidence you would expect from a leader with decades of experience, giving her a noticeable presence to match her six-foot frame.
“I’ve been walking with friends and writing songs with friends who actually are in pretty intense seasons of grief and pain and hard things and they’re saying ‘I didn’t know that grief could exist at the same time as joy and gratitude.’ And it can, because joy is not happiness. Joy is found in Jesus, right?” she states.
She continues, “Psalm 1:1-3 says, ‘Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither, whatever they do prospers.’”
Born of a family steeped in melodies and musical talent, her parents met in an orchestra and her grandmother was her piano teacher. Her heritage an encouragement, she bravely began leading worship at the tender age of 12. She continued in that call of service to obtain a master’s in commercial piano leading her to the pivotal moment when she won Belmont’s highly respected Christian Showcase in 2019. The win led her to sign an exclusive recording and publishing contract with Centricity Music.
In writing her debut album, the songwriter took to social media and quickly garnered millions of likes on Tiktok as she welcomed a young generation into her songwriting process and became part of the growing collective of youthful believers using their gifts to reach hearts and spread hope in new ways.
Natalie Layne on the set of Our Story Our Song. Image: Jessica Patterson
Even with the growing popularity, she remains true to her pursuit to both deepen and grow in her personal relationship. One of the ways she does that is by getting out in nature to immerse herself with God’s Creation .
“Something about that {nature} sound, I think awakens a sound in us. That’s where I think about the creative process for me, kind of aligning with nature. Then I’ll usually take those ideas into the studio and they kind of blossom into something else but a lot of times they do start out in nature.”
As an independent artist, Layne studied under GRAMMY® award-winning songwriter and producer Bernie Herms (Natalie Grant, Josh Groban, Barbra Streisand) providing an apprenticeship in not only craft but also the connection between stewardship and spiritual gifting.
“Stewardship looks like sacrifice. It looks like service. I think sometimes we can think of the word stewardship or even gifting, we can think of it as, man, there’s a gifting here, there’s a talent here, maybe there’s something God’s given us and that can turn into a lot of things other than biblical stewardship. It can turn into pride really fast. It can turn into a longing for a platform instead of for a person. So I think we have to kind of reorder our thinking and lift our eyes to stewardship being serving the Lord, serving people with a gift instead of serving ourselves.” she reflects.
Natalie Layne on the set of Our Story Our Song. Image: Jessica Patterson
On Our Story Our Song Layne takes us on a walk in the Great Outdoors and invites us to consider the vastness and wonder of what can come from using our spiritual gifts freely. She performs live among rustling leaves in an afternoon of worship surrounded by Creation seemingly untouched by anything other than our Creator. Subscribe, like, and comment for more behind the scenes exclusives.
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