Kate Redgate’s long journey leads to CD release at the Firehouse

Kate Redgate spent much of her childhood horseback riding across the farm in rural Illinois where she grew up. Adopted as an infant from Scott Air Force Base in 1970, her old horse Rusty became her closest friend. She spent whole days atop Rusty’s bare back, racing carefree over the farm’s green pastures.

Redgate also started singing in a church chorus when she was about 8 years old. The organist later gave her piano lessons, and another church patron taught her how to play guitar, showing her the chords to old John Denver tunes.

Music soon became as much a passion for Redgate as horseback riding. “I used to ride my horse at the Boots and Saddle Club, and they always had country music blasting on the loud speakers,” she said.

Now just shy of 39, Redgate’s life has taken numerous turns over the last three decades. She has moved around the country, lived on the streets, worked countless jobs, gotten married and divorced, and raised two children of her own. But the Newburyport resident still vividly recalls the simplicity of her youth, when she wanted little more than to sing and ride horses.

“Ironically enough, those two things are my life right now,” she said.

Redgate will release her debut album “Nothing Tragic” with two shows at the Firehouse Center for the Arts in Newburyport on Friday and Saturday, June 12 and 13. After 20 years of public performance, the new CD marks the culmination of a long and laborious musical journey that has turned her into one of the Seacoast’s most promising singer-songwriters.

Redgate’s country meanderings began when she was a teenager. After a brief stint in a foster home, she took off on her own at the age of 16, living on and off the streets for the next several years. As she rambled around the Midwest, crashing on people’s couches and living what she called a “seedier existence,” she always carried her acoustic guitar with her.

“I packed it around with me even during periods when I wasn’t playing. In hindsight, now I understand why I did that, but at the time I just didn’t want to part with it,” she said. “It was really a survival period.”

Redgate’s life began to settle down when she was 19. She moved from Missouri back to her native Illinois, rented a studio apartment and got a bartending job. She got her GED and enrolled in a community college, and her musical activity began to pick up. She played one of her first gigs at the college and was surprised by how well it went. “Then, all of a sudden, I was playing all the time,” she said.

A couple of years later, Redgate became restless again and moved to Montana, settling in Missoula. She worked at an array of places, including a vintage guitar shop, and continued performing regularly in pubs, playing a mix of cover songs and original rootsy material that reflected her country upbringing.

Redgate moved to New England in 1994, getting married along the way. There, she took a multi-year hiatus from public performance while she raised her two children. But after her divorce, she supported herself and her family by teaching music lessons and playing bar gigs for money.

Redgate started gigging around the Seacoast in 1999 and soon befriended several established local musicians, including Harvey Reid, Charlie Strater and Jon Nolan. “I found it to be a really great community, which was really cool because I was recovering from some culture shock living in New England,” she said.

Throughout the early 2000s, Redgate became increasingly active in the local scene, competing in folk songwriting competitions and releasing some informal recordings. But her budding career came to a halt in 2005 when she crushed her left arm in an accident. For a while, she wasn’t sure if she would ever play guitar again.

But Redgate slowly recovered and began working on her first full-length studio album, recording 11 original songs at producer Tom Eaton’s home in Newburyport. The album’s title, “Nothing Tragic,” refers to her refusal to let her life be defined by the lows, even as the challenges of being a single mother exhausted her.

“I said to myself, ‘I refuse to become this tragic figure. That’s not my life,’” she said.

With a stellar backing band that includes Charlie Strater on electric guitar and vocals, Jon Nolan on pedal steel and vocals, Zach Field on drums, Tom West on keyboard, Michael Miksis on bass and Justin Quinn on harmonica, “Nothing Tragic” is rife with the bluesy folk and country-rock that Redgate grew up hearing in the Midwest.

Although Redgate doesn’t consider herself a narrative songwriter, many of the songs on the CD describe periods of her rocky adolescence and her “weird life,” referencing some of the places where she’s lived and played. “The Palace,” for example, tells of an all-night Keno bar where she worked in Montana, while “Bitterroot Valley Goodbye” describes her departure for New England.

“Not every song is geographical, but I would say they all stem from my own personal experiences,” she said.

Finishing the CD was a euphoric experience for Redgate. “I wept. It’s just a huge relief in so many ways,” she said. 

Redgate now lives in Newburyport with her 15-year-old daughter Mikala and her 11-year-old son Spencer. She said her children have been surprisingly supportive of her musical endeavors, fondly calling her “rock and roll mom.” She works by day for a nonprofit organization that raises funds to research chronic brain diseases.

Rounding out Redgate’s childhood dream, she now has another horse. She hadn’t ridden in at least 20 years until she bought the animal, named Sky. “I needed some other connection to myself, and that really helped,” she said.

Now, with her CD release show around the corner, Redgate is literally living her lifelong dream. “I’m playing again and I’ve got this record that is actually really good. I ride, and the kids are good, and it’s OK,” she said.

Kate Redgate’s CD release shows for “Nothing Tragic” take place on Friday and Saturday, June 12 and 13, at 8 p.m. The Firehouse Center for the Arts is at 1 Market Square, Newburyport, Mass., 978-462-7336. Tickets are $18 for adults, $15 for students, seniors and members.