Tuning in to the community helps Katie go with the FLOW
The ideas were flowing in from all over the North East for Katie Doherty and the Navigators’ new album. The Northumberland singer explains all ahead of a UK tour, which kicks off at Sage Gateshead this month
ASK Katie Doherty who has influenced her new collection of songs and you might well be asked how long have you got?
While the blurb which introduces the popular singer’s latest project name checks Regina Spektor, Nancy Kerr, Guy Garvey and Anais Mitchell as being in the subconscious creative mix, the actual list of those who have contributed is much longer – and much closer to her Northumberland home.
This is thanks to an ambitious community collaboration which saw people from across the North East having their tuneful two-penneth when it came to how the songs for FLOW – the new album from burgeoning folk outfit Katie Doherty and the Navigators – came together.
Summed up by Katie as the band’s “boldest storytelling yet”, the album was inspired by how people engage with their music and saw early demos of the songs shared with people from a quartet of community groups, who were then asked to respond to them.
Katie said: “Community outreach, participation and education has always been a big part of my ‘other’ work away from performing.
“I have felt the need for it more than ever in the last few years – partly as so much of it has been lost/ made substantially more difficult during the pandemic but also because I see the value of the arts for hearts and minds in all settings.
“My work feels much more purposeful if I can reach further. It’s nothing without that connection.”
Members of Tin Arts in Durham, Odd Man Out in Darlington, Stage in Tynemouth and people from Katie’s local community in Rural Northumberland worked with award-winning playwright Laura Lindow (The Snow Queen, Northern Stage; Beyond the End of the Road, November Club; Sugar and Key Change, Open Clasp) who was on hand to facilitate and collect the reactions and responses which then influenced the development of the songs.
Katie added: “It was a joyous experience to take rough versions of songs to people and say ‘What do you make of this? What does it make you think and feel?’.
“It was really wonderful to talk about different people’s often very different responses to the same piece. They were sometimes radically different to one another and at the same time all perfectly valid.
“It offered a great insight into how music works.”
The resulting album FLOW, produced by Mattie Foulds (Karine Polwart, Rachel Newton, Adam Holmes and The Embers) and scheduled for release in the summer, offers a collection of songs balanced on the precipice of where the world currently find itself.
Blending big-hearted hope for the future with recognition of the challenges ahead, Katie said: “I think FLOW is the best representation of how I hear my songs so far.
“It is a stronger, bolder, braver and more mature sound definitely but with the same storytelling rooted in the folk tradition.”
The first single from the album will be Hurricane (released tomorrow), which Katie describes as a “rallying cry for activism and hope for change”.
The video for the song will celebrate the fully-choreographed dance piece TIN Arts devised with a group of dancers with learning disabilities who were responding to the Katie Doherty and the Navigators’ demos. It is being produced by dancer and animator, Jem Clancy.
Katie added: “When they were working on this, all the dancers were meeting over Zoom and so they were dancing in their own individual Zoom squares and creating moves to our music. It was really very special.”
Since their debut album And Then was released in 2019 the band – the perfect vehicle for this North Eastbased trio (fiddler Grace Smith and Dave Gray on the melodeon play alongside Katie) – has enjoyed extensive airplay all over Europe including live sessions on BBC Radio Two and Three.
A raft of tour dates, including performances at the Cambridge Folk Festival, Manchester Folk Festival and Cheltenham Festival and support slots with Blue Rose Code and Rachel Newton cemented the band’s place on the list of acts audiences want to see.
Lots of audiences are going to have lots of chances to see them in the coming weeks and months, thanks to a 14-date tour which kicks off at Sage Gateshead on May 13.
The opening gig will feature a community choir of backing singers who didn’t need asking twice when Katie put out a call for volunteers earlier this year.
She said: “The choir call-out has been a huge success and I now have a waiting list for places.
“Those applying have mentioned how much they have missed singing as part of a group and I totally get that. It’s going to be very special to have them singing with us.
“It feels wonderful to have dates in the diary again after such a long time away and we definitely appreciate being in front of an audience on a whole new level.
“We’re looking forward to celebrating being back on stage with everyone.”
FOR full tour dates – there are other North East dates in Saltburn, Teesdale and Stockton – visit www.katiedoherty.co.uk/live