Katherine Paul lends talent to farm fundraiser

Katherine Paul is pretty good at pulling strings.

After all, she does it for a living. A very good living, at that.

The local singer-songwriter, a multi-instrumentalist who is the face of rising band Black Belt Eagle Scout, was back to doing what she does best in late September, helping headline the virtual Love the Land concert that netted over $250,000 for startup Skagit farmers.

Paul, who learned to play the guitar, piano and drums while growing up on Swinomish Reservation, was among top regional musicians who took part in Love the Land, which benefitted Skagit County non-profit Viva Farms and the Washington Farmland Trust.

Washington Farmland Trust and Viva Farms each works to protect farmland and support farmers with resources, training and land access opportunities.

A primary focus of Viva Farms is to provide bilingual training to beginning farmers while creating avenues to land, infrastructure, capital and markets. The Washington Farmland Trust concentrates on ag land conservation

Paul, meanwhile, has cultivated both critical acclaim and fan support for Black Belt Eagle Scout’s rare blend of alternative rock and traditional Native American music.

She was almost literally born to be a musician. Her grandparents, the late Isabel and Alex Paul, Sr., led a Native American drum group that performed at venues large and small throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Her dad, Swinomish master carver Kevin Paul, was a key member of the group – the famed Skagit Valley Singers – and continues to sing and drum at ceremonial events.

“The very first form of music that I can remember experiencing,” she said in introducing Black Belt Eagle Scout’s 2019 album “At the Party With My Brown Friends,” “was the sound of my dad singing native chants to coo me to sleep as a baby.

“I grew up around pow-wows,” she noted, “and the songs my grandfather and grandmother sang with my family in their drum group.”

Her mom is local attorney and Weekly News columnist Pat Paul, who leads a growing fan base for Black Belt Eagle Scout, which reviewers predict is now poised for a national breakout.

Katherine Paul, however, stresses she is no overnight success. She has worked long and hard at her craft. As a teen, she intently studied popular music groups, pausing VHS tapes repeatedly to examine the position of each musician’s fingers on their respective instruments.

Her work ethic hasn’t gone unnoticed.

Paul has in the past couple years been the subject of numerous print and broadcast interviews, including the Seattle Times and National Public Radio.

Having spent much of her career in Portland, Paul was an ideal choice to perform at Love the Land given her long-held commitment to land conservation and environmental issues.

That and her relentless effort to blaze trails in the music industry.

“There aren’t very many native and indigenous women being recognized,” she told the Willamette Week of Portland. “I want to be able to carve out a way for women like me to be able to have this platform and know that they can be successful.

“It’s really important for me to be able to do it all myself,” she added. “Especially as an indigenous woman. It’s not something I feel like I have to prove. It’s more like, ‘This is mine, this is what I do.’”

Those who logged onto Love the Land – nearly 600 people donated to the cause – can certainly relate.