KAIA KATER - SORROW BOUND
2015 - Kingswood Records
I am no musician but it strikes me that there is a prodigious talent at work here on Kaia Kater's full length debut album. Her banjo playing is excellent and her vocals are not only beautifully feminine but also incorporate a youthful dynamism that gives a lift to the music as well as hopefully giving it credibility in the ears of the young. It certainly should do, for whilst she has delved into the traditional music of both the U.S and Canada and stayed true to the tradition there are elements of modernity, not in wholesale stylistic changes but subtle little ways that let the listener know this is very much a 21st century album by a 21st century performer. She has obviously studied old time dancing and continues to do so, as well as the music, and is good enough to display her dancing skills in public; just look at some of the youtube clips! This is not a musician who goes through the motions but someone whose is completely dedicated to and absorbed by everything to do with her music, it's roots and its history.
There seems to be an ever increasing number of incredibly talented Canadian singers, songwriters, bands on the roots music scene, thanks perhaps, to the internet going some way to negating the need of a record contract and indeed giving them the ability to put their music out there and possibly get noticed by one of the companies. Obviously that talent is not the result of a 'big bang,' having always been there, but the reliance on record contracts has been, to a degree, outwitted by the digital age that now allows us music fans access to talents such as that wrapped up in Kaia Kater. Having said that, I suspect a unique talent, such as she possesses would have eventually been picked up anyway, but it is lovely to now be as able to talk about generic Canadian roots music in the same breath as American roots music, the blend often being such that there is little discernible difference as you should perhaps expect from two countries joined together on a vast continent.
There is both invention and originality in every song on this tremendous recording, including the traditional songs, something that, for me at least, was totally unexpected. It proves beyond all doubt that 'old timey' songs that are a century or more old can still bring a lovely freshness to the 'roots music' genre and all the time this ages old thread of music is kept alive by talents as great as Kaia's there is little fear it will die any time soon.
There are just four Kaia original songs, with the other seven all being traditional and of those three are banjo and fiddle driven instrumentals, but I defy most listeners to separate the old from the new, such is the quality of her writing and invention. Her banjo playing has a naturalness to it that lets you know this is a real banjo player, rather than just someone who can play the instrument and she is helped out by the equally virtuosic, Toronto based fiddler Chris Bartos who also produced the album.
When Sorrows Encompass Me Round is a Kaia original and provides a gorgeous, if dramatic, opening with haunting violin followed by Kaia's gorgeous, almost spooky vocal. It is a sparse eerie tale on which the spookiness increases with electric guitar tones on a song that ebbs and flows but always has a powerful sense of drama. Sun To Sun has a chiming banjo leading Kaia's vocal on another haunting ethereal tale. In terms of eeriness and haunting I think this young lady has it cracked. The song is short and succinct but as with the other songs on this album it leaves a lasting impression. On Moonshiner her beautiful unaccompanied vocal evokes a front porch in the high Appachians of a century ago (I wasn't there but that is the impression I get) then on the chorus there are exquisite female harmonies that give the song a lovely variation. Oh Darlin' includes more of her exquisite banjo playing with a drone in the background on a song that whilst being a Kaia original could just as easily have been written 100 years ago. It has a dark, slightly spooky atmosphere, in keeping with much of this tremendous recording. The traditional West Virginia Boys provides us with a quite outstanding reading of a traditional song that in Kaia's hands actually has a dark eerie atmosphere, very much in keeping with how the song was intended to be. Final mention goes to another Kaia original, Come And Rest, an intensely dramatic and spooky song that includes some beautiful harmonies. It has a dark spacy feel that thanks to the beauty of the vocals takes on a further sinister edge.
This 21 year old from Toronto has everything she needs to become one of the most successful of all Canadian musicians, having one of the biggest talents to come out of Canada since Joni Mitchell or Neil Young, although on the strength of first albums Kaia is ahead! Musically, worlds and decades, apart but talent wise virtual triplets!
http://www.kaiakater.com/
I am no musician but it strikes me that there is a prodigious talent at work here on Kaia Kater's full length debut album. Her banjo playing is excellent and her vocals are not only beautifully feminine but also incorporate a youthful dynamism that gives a lift to the music as well as hopefully giving it credibility in the ears of the young. It certainly should do, for whilst she has delved into the traditional music of both the U.S and Canada and stayed true to the tradition there are elements of modernity, not in wholesale stylistic changes but subtle little ways that let the listener know this is very much a 21st century album by a 21st century performer. She has obviously studied old time dancing and continues to do so, as well as the music, and is good enough to display her dancing skills in public; just look at some of the youtube clips! This is not a musician who goes through the motions but someone whose is completely dedicated to and absorbed by everything to do with her music, it's roots and its history.
There seems to be an ever increasing number of incredibly talented Canadian singers, songwriters, bands on the roots music scene, thanks perhaps, to the internet going some way to negating the need of a record contract and indeed giving them the ability to put their music out there and possibly get noticed by one of the companies. Obviously that talent is not the result of a 'big bang,' having always been there, but the reliance on record contracts has been, to a degree, outwitted by the digital age that now allows us music fans access to talents such as that wrapped up in Kaia Kater. Having said that, I suspect a unique talent, such as she possesses would have eventually been picked up anyway, but it is lovely to now be as able to talk about generic Canadian roots music in the same breath as American roots music, the blend often being such that there is little discernible difference as you should perhaps expect from two countries joined together on a vast continent.
There is both invention and originality in every song on this tremendous recording, including the traditional songs, something that, for me at least, was totally unexpected. It proves beyond all doubt that 'old timey' songs that are a century or more old can still bring a lovely freshness to the 'roots music' genre and all the time this ages old thread of music is kept alive by talents as great as Kaia's there is little fear it will die any time soon.
There are just four Kaia original songs, with the other seven all being traditional and of those three are banjo and fiddle driven instrumentals, but I defy most listeners to separate the old from the new, such is the quality of her writing and invention. Her banjo playing has a naturalness to it that lets you know this is a real banjo player, rather than just someone who can play the instrument and she is helped out by the equally virtuosic, Toronto based fiddler Chris Bartos who also produced the album.
When Sorrows Encompass Me Round is a Kaia original and provides a gorgeous, if dramatic, opening with haunting violin followed by Kaia's gorgeous, almost spooky vocal. It is a sparse eerie tale on which the spookiness increases with electric guitar tones on a song that ebbs and flows but always has a powerful sense of drama. Sun To Sun has a chiming banjo leading Kaia's vocal on another haunting ethereal tale. In terms of eeriness and haunting I think this young lady has it cracked. The song is short and succinct but as with the other songs on this album it leaves a lasting impression. On Moonshiner her beautiful unaccompanied vocal evokes a front porch in the high Appachians of a century ago (I wasn't there but that is the impression I get) then on the chorus there are exquisite female harmonies that give the song a lovely variation. Oh Darlin' includes more of her exquisite banjo playing with a drone in the background on a song that whilst being a Kaia original could just as easily have been written 100 years ago. It has a dark, slightly spooky atmosphere, in keeping with much of this tremendous recording. The traditional West Virginia Boys provides us with a quite outstanding reading of a traditional song that in Kaia's hands actually has a dark eerie atmosphere, very much in keeping with how the song was intended to be. Final mention goes to another Kaia original, Come And Rest, an intensely dramatic and spooky song that includes some beautiful harmonies. It has a dark spacy feel that thanks to the beauty of the vocals takes on a further sinister edge.
This 21 year old from Toronto has everything she needs to become one of the most successful of all Canadian musicians, having one of the biggest talents to come out of Canada since Joni Mitchell or Neil Young, although on the strength of first albums Kaia is ahead! Musically, worlds and decades, apart but talent wise virtual triplets!
http://www.kaiakater.com/