Caroline Doctorow and Her Band Perform at the UU Meetinghouse

Though she lives in Bridgehampton, there is a certain “middle states” vibe about Caroline Doctorow’s music, in all the best of ways.

A roots-based singer and songwriter who offers up a lot of folk, a good smattering of country and a liberal dose of bluegrass is one way to describe her music. That’s because Doctorow brings a certain nostalgia, both for other parts of the country and earlier eras, to her songwriting and guitar skills.

Take her single “The Nightbird” for example. One of Doctorow’s newest songs, it pays tribute to a heroine of her youth — Alison Steele, the WNEW-FM disc jockey who, in the 1960s and 1970s, ushered many a New Yorker through the lonely overnight hours with a lot of great music and a good dose of wisdom.

“I’ve always been a big fan of radio,” explained Doctorow, who hosts “Songtrails,” a monthly radio show on WPKN in Connecticut that highlights roots-based musicians. “In New Rochelle as a kid, I’d listen to Alison in the evenings. She was truly a women pioneer in the ’60s, and one of first women DJs in the country.”

The lyrics of “The Nightbird” evoke that era to a tee. Set in 1971, it describes being “Up in the attic with the hi-fi on, Listening to the purple haze psychedelic sound. Lovin’ Spoonful, Crosby Stills & Nash, Papa John Creach, Mama Cass. We’d fly high on the radio waves until dawn.”

“I think I’ve always been nostalgic for that time and I’ve been in love with this kind of music since I was in high school,” Doctorow continued. “What I do sometimes is come upon these figures in history of the music that had a profound effect on me. I don’t know what made me think of Alison Steele — she passed away in the mid-’90s. Something brings me back to those formative years.”

Also figuring prominently in Doctorow’s musical lexicon are the late 1960s husband and wife folk icons Richard and Mimi Fariña, who were the subjects of Doctorow’s 2009 album “Another Country … The Songs of Richard and Mimi Fariña.”

That album was produced by fellow musician Pete Kennedy at Narrow Lane Recording Studios, the Bridgehampton studio Doctorow and Kennedy share. This Friday, October 20, they will also share the stage at Folk Night Friday, a 7 p.m. show at the Unitarian Universalist Meetinghouse in Bridgehampton.

The concert features Doctorow performing on a bill alongside Pete Kennedy and his wife, Maura, the singing-songwriting duo known professionally as The Kennedys. The couple began their touring career back in the early 1990s as members of Nanci Griffith’s Blue Moon Orchestra, and they took part in her Grammy-winning album Other Voices, Other Rooms and performed with her at Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Austin City Limits and on “The Tonight Show.”

“The Kennedys and I have a wonderful, long history of collaboration,” explained Doctorow, who first met the couple in 2008 while she was searching for a producer for “Another Country,” an album that features several different musicians performing the songs of Richard and Mimi Fariña.

“Someone recommended Pete Kennedy as a producer and he was interested,” she added. “They came and stayed in a cottage on our property, and we completed the album in a month.”

The project also led to Doctorow and Pete Kennedy establishing Narrow Lane Recording Studio which, in the years that followed, recorded many local songwriters, including Greenport-based duo Geoffrey Schroeder and Laura Hoch who are collectively known as The Second Hands, along with South Fork musicians Job Potter, Jeff Bragman and Fred Raimondo.

“Pete and I did that for many years, until the pandemic hit,” said Doctorow, who notes that he and Maura were very involved in Nanci Griffith’s career until her death in 2021. The couple’s 2012 album “Trouble in the Fields: Tribute to Nanci Griffith,” was released on the Huntington, Long Island-based indie label Paradiddle Records.

Though the Narrow Lane studio is closed, for now anyways, Doctorow continues to keep in close contact with Pete and Maura Kennedy, who are based in Westchester County.

“At this concert, they’ll be featuring their brand-new album ‘Headwinds,’ which just made it to number one on the folk radio charts,” said Doctorow, adding that Maura Kennedy sings on her albums while Pete Kennedy joins her on some of her gigs.

It’s a good time to be making music with friends. While Doctorow loves reminiscing about the songs and artists of an earlier era, much of the music seems particularly relevant, given that between labor strikes, civil unrest, environmental disasters, political divisiveness and far-flung wars, our times bear more than a passing resemblance to the 1960s. Which means the need for songs that call it like it is are needed more than ever.

“I’m halfway through a protest song right now with sort of a long title — ‘You’re Walking Under the Rainbow (of Someone Else’s Storm)’ it pays tribute to people like MLK, Joan Baez and Pete Seeger,” Doctorow explained. “We’re benefiting from the storms they traveled through. We have to forge ahead and are doing the same for those that come after us.”

Among those that Doctorow is referring to as representing the next generation are her daughters, Graylen and Annabel, who are now young adults finding their own way in the world.

“It’s amazing hanging out with my daughters and their friends. They are so full of energy, life, ambition and generosity — and they’re all so smart,” Doctorow said. “I really feel hopeful when I’m around them.”

Folk Night Friday with Caroline Doctorow and The Kennedys begins at 7 p.m. on Friday, October 20, at the Unitarian Universalist Meetinghouse, 977 Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike, Bridgehampton. Doctorow will be joined by her band, Russ Seeger (“the DNA tests aren’t back yet,” she jokes when asked if he’s any relation to Pete) on acoustic guitar and duet and harmony vocals, Greg McMullen on pedal steel guitar and dobra and Glen Saunders on upright bass. Tickets are $25 at the door or by calling 631-902-6173.