PROLIFIC Oxford singer-songwriter Thea Gilmore is celebrating her long overdue Top 40 debut with her 14th – yes, 14th – album of a career that began in teenage days.

Thea, now 34, will be promoting the typically frank and savvy Regardless at Harrogate Theatre on Sunday, June 1 on her summer tour.

The album grew out of an enforced hiatus. In July 2011, Thea gave birth to her second son, two days away from completing mixes for her Sandy Denny collaboration, Don't Stop Singing. The birth, however, was a traumatic one after serious complications, heralding in an intense and personally devastating few months for the often bitter-sweet songwriter.

Her newborn son's early months were beset with health issues while Thea suffered both physical illness and post-natal depression.

"I've encountered bouts of depression in the past but nothing prepared me for the overwhelming nature of this," she says.

After a few months, with encouragement from family and friends, she found the strength to write her first song in well over a year. Its theme of love, wonder and the helplessness of a mother watching her children heading out into the world set the tone for her most personal collection of songs to date.

“When you write as much as I do, it would be easy to get stuck in a rut and end up putting out the same album," she says.

"This experience helped me re-learn what I do. I once had a conversation with a friend about a female artist who had had kids, and he thought her album sounded like she thought she was the only woman ever to go through the birth experience.

"I never wanted Regardless to come across like that. For me, these are songs about being the custodian of somebody, but also about the process of letting go."

Thea and her long-standing producer, Nigel Stonier, spent nine months in five different studios, hooking up with collaborators Seadna Mac Phail, Danish producers The Suppliers and string arranger Pete Whitfield, creating her most textured record. Stonier, incidentally, had worked on Thea's debut album, Burning Dorothy, released in November 1998 when she was 19.

Next month, Thea will be setting off on the road for 12 shows, her children by her side. "Like any working parent, it’s a balancing act," she says.

"I feel very lucky that I can do both, but there’s always a lot of guilt involved. I think it’s a good learning experience for them, but they do have a fairly lateral take on normality. My older son grew up thinking that hanging out with [The Waterboys'] Mike Scott and Bruce Springsteen, and spending weeks on a tour bus going round the US, was just routine pre-school experience."

Tickets for Thea's 7.30pm gig are on sale at £22.50 on 01423 502116 or at harrogatetheatre.co.uk