Gig Review: Kaia Kater - Kitchen Garden, Kings Heath, Birmingham. Tuesday 27th January 2026

 

Positive vibes and applied virtuoso are fine ingredients for a rewarding gig especially when you are literally positioned a couple of feet away from the artist. Through banjo playing, vocals, and amenable comment, Kaia Kater emanated a sense of comfort and appreciation. This revealed a talent that has made her a sought after artist in roots music circles from her native Canada through the US to music communities in the UK and Europe. 

Early year visits have become a trend when you can add the centrepiece of a Celtic Connections booking. Across an eight year period, Kater has played the Kitchen Garden in Birmingham on three occasions, each taking place in January/February. Just like 2024, Andrew Ryan on upright bass completed the duo format with a near sell out audience reflecting a growing appeal. 

Ryan’s bass playing, both hand plucked and caressed with the bow, was unique and animated, expressively interacting with his partner’s banjo,  Add in backing vocals and equally positive vibes, the onstage chemistry with Kater blossomed to show a partnership fully in-sync. 

Since the release of the well-received debut album Nine Pin in 2016,  Grenades followed in 2018, then an understandable short wait before the first post-pandemic outing in 2024 with Strange Medicine. The good news is a fourth is on the way with one track from it previewed on the night.

‘Sidney’ is the new song in honour of pioneering black actor Sidney Poitier. Promoting a Caribbean heritage and more generally people of colour has been an integral part of her career This was especially pertinent in 2018 when chosen by Rhiannon Giddens to participate in a distinct curation for the Cambridge Folk Festival. The focus there was both colour and gender. The latter is also a current theme as explained on the night through involvement with the Book More Women organisation that advocates for greater gender parity in festival line ups alongside removing gig barriers for female artists.  For somebody from the North American continent basing their art around socially conscious issues, it is unsurprising to hear understandable dismay about worrying developments in her adopted homeland. 

Kater balances the approach of music and chat well in her show and the two Birmingham sets featured songs across her three albums alongside select covers that add value, meaning and context. Three songs represented debut release Nine Pin with the title track opening the show and ‘Saint Elizabeth’ doing likewise after the interval. Just before the break, we enjoyed the traditional delights of ‘Little Pink’, a song highlighting Kater’s love for delving into the roots archives sourcing tunes and songs especially with a strong gender presence. 

No Kaia Kater show is complete without reference to her father and the story of his exodus from Grenada after major political upheaval in the 1980s. The album Grenades told that story with snippets of narration intermingling a batch of excellent songs including ‘Meridian Ground’ and ‘Canyonland”, both played in the first set and among the gig’s stand out moments.

Strange Medicine is probably Kaia Kater’s most widely acclaimed album to date and five songs made the setlist including the lead track ‘The Internet’, which proved a popular choice. This was one of the few songs played on acoustic guitar, though a prominent banjo player forges her musical identity. Another superb song from the record is ‘In Montreal’, a celebration of her Canadian home city. Allison Russell features on the recorded version but tonight we had to make do with just fun references to poutine, a well known Canadian delicacy. ‘Maker Taker’, ‘Often as the Autumn’, and ‘History in Motion’ completed this album's selections. The ghost-like origins of the first of these contributed to it being the pick of the trio.

Three meaningful covers completed the night’s songbook. Corin Raymond’s ‘The Law & the Lonesome’ and Gillian Welch’s ‘Everything is Free’ definitely fall into the cover category with the latter more known this side of the pond than the former, a fellow Canadian artist . The encore choice ‘Trouble in Mind’ is more a jazz standard than anyone owing it and the solo vocal performance with minimal bass accompaniment was fitting for a song with wide appeal.

The partnership of Kaia Kater and Andrew Ryan was on top form on their return to Birmingham. They expressed a fondness for the venue and were blessed that so many people chose to engage with their music on a night with a surfeit of alternative options. A career already with plenty of material and shows under the belt is set to make further strides. Hopefully connective nights like the Kitchen Garden remain within reach, though outgrowing these spaces may be a feature of the future.