Gig Review: Edwina Hayes - Kitchen Garden, Kings Heath, Birmingham. Thursday 1st January 2026

Some artists have a Las Vegas residency; Edwina Hayes has carved out a Kings Heath one. Now running into several consecutive years, the Kitchen Garden on New Year's Day is the domain of this East Yorkshire-based singer-songwriter. January 1st does not have a lot of competition on the gig circuit but credit due if you can entice folks out of their home in sufficient numbers to start the year as you mean to go on. The sold out sign went up a couple of days before the event and mix of devoted friends, family and fans mingled with curious gig goers and those eager to get off the mark in the refined realm of the serenely cultivated song.

Edwina Hayes has been an active professional musician for over twenty-five years. The early years were defined by recorded albums of original songs and lauded by the music press. Recent times have seen a resourceful live performer adept at delivering carefully spun covers alongside her own songs that are thinner on the ground than the album years. Either way, her shows are an entertaining affair with a warm affable personality proving a strong foil for a voice elegantly built to share the wares of a fine song. 

The introduction announced a couple of 45-minute sets to gently ease in the New Year, inevitably the second ran closer to the hour mark, a common feature when artists get on a roll and sense an audience on board. On an evening where the covers were popular picks from a wide array of classic artists, the highest compliment is that the selection of own songs such as 'Pour Me a Drink'. 'I Want Your Love' and 'Feels Like Home' matched up well and heralded a seriously good songwriter when endeavours leant in that direction. 

The revelation of a New Year's Eve gig in Devon suggested some logistical logic, you can't cultivate a lengthy career without some nous. Additionally, a return to Birmingham was announced in the Spring when the Red Lion Folk Club is the destination. The folk circuit is a fruitful place for shows, and among the pop covers and songs with a country leaning, there is a substantial part of her repertoire akin to what goes down well with folk fans. A little further field, she has been invited to play Beardy Folk Festival in Shropshire in June. That environment really suits her style of performance with an ability to adapt to both small and large stages.

The signal to reconvene same time-same place was given, and why not? A mutually ideal pursuit to herald the beginning of another lap around the sun. Edwina Hayes at the Kitchen Garden is a residency with a difference. One that Las Vegas can't replicate.