Katie James is a Colombian singer, composer, and guitarist. Born in Ireland to an Irish father and English mother, Katie's family immigrated to Tolima, Colombia, when she was 2 years old. In her career of more than 15 years, she has brought together Colombian and Latin American folklore to her music across 5 albums. Katie has toured stages across Latin America, Europe, and the United States.
Join Katie in a sit-down, intimate chat about her journey with music and story, interspersed with songs and her soothing vocals. Katie James joined the online portion of RootsTech 2024 broadcast on Thursday, Feb 29. Her keynote video is Spanish audio with English and Portuguese subtitles, and it will be available for a time even after the RootsTech 2024 conference is over.
A Legacy of Melodies and Stories
Despite being born in Ireland, Katie James' first memories are in Tolima, Colombia, where she grew up in an Anglo-Irish ecological community founded by her mother.
Katie described being deeply drawn and connected to the countryside throughout her childhood and teenage years. When she moved to the city, she was inspired to use music as a way to "transport" herself back to Tolima. Katie James played the first song she ever composed, "Me Voy Al Monte," which is inspired by Colombian Andean music.
"Me Voy Al Monte" will have you sighing, relaxing, and longing for the lyrical imagery of classic nature scenes: lush green mountains, a flowing river, birds flying through the air.
Katie firmly believes that "everything is connected through music." She expressed that music can tell stories and reveal our innermost feelings. Katie uses music as a way to unite and remind audiences that each person has a story to tell and share with others.
"I want to be remembered for the music that I make," Katie explains, "but it's not just a musical experience. It's about living an emotional experience." While she loves sharing her own songs with the world, she also thinks that concerts are a beautiful opportunity to bring back memories through songs that are well-loved by new and older generations alike. Katie wants audiences to remember how she made them feel through her music.
Uniting in Love through Song
"My family had tons of books filled with traditional Irish songs," Katie shared. She remembers listening to Irish melodies as a child and feeling a deep, almost mystical, connection as she imagined Irish landscapes, elves, and fairies.
"She Moved through the Fair," a traditional Irish melody that Katie sang, holds deep significance to her family. "My Irish dad taught it to my English mom; two countries with a lot of conflict, and they united in love [through the song]."
Katie James most remembers the extraordinary amount of freedom, energy, and color she experienced in her childhood. This freedom helped her become very open-minded and has influenced the music that she writes.
Katie doesn't feel confined to a box or a genre when it comes to music. She points out, "I can make world music. I love it all." It's this attitude that helps Katie touch and inspire multicultural audiences from different backgrounds, transcending cultural and language barriers through her music.
Returning to Roots and Memories
Above all, Katie hopes that we can learn from what our ancestors have experienced, and even become better people through remembering our roots.
"You know yourself better when you know your heritage," Katie says. She emphasized that music helps us make a "return" to who we are and where we come from. Whenever Katie feels that she is beginning to disconnect from the roots that connect her to the land she's from, she decides to refocus her energy and return to the countryside through song.
While living in the countryside usually evokes reflective and peaceful landscapes and experiences, Katie's final song, "Toitico Bien Empacao," showcases the more active, and sometimes messy, aspect of being in the fields, hands muddy and boots dirty.
Katie communicates through her song how important it is to honor and remember where everything comes from. These lyrics, translated from their original Spanish, encourages us to realize that a real person, and their story, is behind even something as small as the corn we buy from the store:
"Tell me what you know about your land,
"Tell me what you know about your grandmother,
"Tell me what you know about your corn,
"or have you forgotten your ancestors and roots?"
While there sometimes can be a disconnect between people of unique backgrounds and experiences, Katie James reminds us through word and song that we can bridge these differences through remembering our ancestors and our roots.
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