Reina Del Cid

Emerging from the intersection of adult alternative pop, alternative folk, Americana, and reflective folk-rock, Reina del Cid originated as the creative project of singer/songwriter Rachelle Cordova. The ensemble made its first appearance on record with blueprints, plans in 2012. While broadening their sonic range yet preserving an intimate, organic character, the fourth album Morse Code from 2019 incorporated guest contributions on lap steel, keyboards, and additional instruments, an approach mirrored by the partly remotely tracked Candy Apple Red upon its arrival in 2022.

Cordova, a native of Fargo, North Dakota, relocated to Minneapolis in 2006 to enroll at the University of Minnesota, where she pursued English literature. She assembled her stage name by pairing the Spanish term for “queen” with her private nickname for her guitar. In 2007 she initiated a video channel that included the music series Sunday Mornings with Reina del Cid, offering both covers and original material.

Once she completed her degree in 2010, the singer/guitarist assembled a full band that included schoolmate and earlier collaborator Toni Lindgren on lead guitar, Andrew Foreman on bass, and Zach Schmidt on drums. Operating at first as Reina del Cid & the Cidizens, they issued blueprints, plans themselves in 2012. The original members stayed together for several years while discarding the Cidizens designation and performing simply as Reina del Cid. Their second album, The Cooling, appeared in mid-2015 and was followed in late 2017 by Rerun City. Throughout those years the video series amassed tens of thousands of subscribers.

The ensemble later aligned with Last Triumph, which reissued Rerun City in June 2018 and The Cooling a few months afterward. Schmidt exited that same year, after which Nate Babbs assumed the drum chair. The revised lineup released Morse Code in October 2019. Following Cordova and Lindgren’s relocation to Los Angeles, the fifth studio album Candy Apple Red took shape as a cross-country, multi-studio project and appeared independently in April 2022.