Singer Thea Gilmore has battled through the traumatic birth of her second son and post-natal depression to create her most personal album yet.

Regardless is her 14th release, the biggest of her career and a Radio 2 Album of the Weekand, and she is now taking it on tour, with her children by her side.

The 33-year-old says it grew out of an enforced hiatus.

In July 2011 she gave birth to her second son, literally two days away from completing mixes to her Sandy Denny collaboration Don’t Stop Singing.

But after serious complications, her newborn son’s early months were beset with health issues and Thea suffered a period of physical illness and post-natal depression.

She says: "I've encountered bouts of depression in the past. But nothing prepared me for the overwhelming nature of this."

After a few months, with encouragement from family and friends, she found the strength to write her first song in well over a year.

She was inspired by the combination of love, wonder and helplessness a mother feels watching her children heading out into the world, to scribe her most direct, personal collection of songs yet.

"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. This experience helped me relearn what I do", say Gilmore.

"I once had a conversation with a friend about a female artist who had had kids... he thought the album she released subsequently sounded as if 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."

Gilmore and long standing musical partner/producer Nigel Stonier have journeyed into new territories this time around, spending over nine months in a total of five different studios, hooking up with collaborators Seadna Mac Phail (Elbow), Danish producers The Suppliers (Ron Sexsmith, Martha Wainwright) and string arranger Pete Whitfield (Plan B).

Gilmore’s first album, Burning Dorothy, was released when she was just 19 and she has stayed true to her artistic and intellectual integrity since then, turning down several offers from major labels, keeping creative control of her music and her image, and in recent years taking advantage of the opportunities the digital world offers.

She tours tirelessly, and now takes the children on the road too.

"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 Mike Scott and Bruce Springsteen, and spending weeks on a tourbus going round the US was just routine pre-school experience"

Thea will be performing songs from Regardless and some of her back catalogue at Harpenden Public Halls on Thursday, June 5. Details: 01582 767525, harpendenpublichalls.co.uk