Singer, songwriter, banjo player and songster Kaia Kater‘s debut release Sorrow bound is a fine program of Americana. It leans particularly toward old-time Appalachian-style music — not surprising given her talent and obvious love for claw-hammer-style playing. But this is no album for purists. Instead it’s a mostly successful attempt to bring old-time into the present day.
Kater grew up in Quebec and has spent a lot of time in Appalachia, particularly West Virginia where she learned the music and collects songs from both old-timers like folklorist Gerry Milnes and younger stars like Rhiannon Giddens (Carolina Chocolate Drops).
The CD opens with the song by Kater from which the album title was drawn, “When Sorrows Encompass Me Round.” The first thing that you hear, and that really catches your attention, is the clawhammer-style banjo, played in the old style in the service of this decidedly modern-sounding song. After a while the arrangement adds a deep droning bass and keening electric guitar that lay a portentous foundation under Kater’s delightful picking and light soprano. When the additional instruments fall away for the bridge verse it’s quite dramatic — particularly as that bridge quotes liberally from the existing Appalachian songbook: “Are you tired of me darlin’, when work’s all done in fall? I’ll still think on you darlin’. I ‘member it all.” The second track “Southern Girl” uses the banjo in a more traditional way, but the song still has plenty of modern elements, particularly Chris Bartos’s walking-style electric bass, or is it a Moog bass? I think the latter. Check out this solo acoustic video version, though.
The arrangements and production are by either Bartos alone or with Kater, and they serve the songs well. The occasional use of synthesizer, piano and even electric guitar give these old-time-style songs a youthful, contemporary framework. Kater has a nice touch on the banjo; I could listen to her play it all day, although I think she is still finding her singing voice.
There are 11 songs altogether, including three sturdy instrumentals, all traditional: “Salt River,” “Valley Forge,” and “Rose On The Mountain.” I love that Kater in the liner notes traces “Valley Forge” back through Grandpa Jones’s wife Ramona Jones to the great songster and teacher Jimmy Driftwood.
In addition to songs by Kater, the album’s traditional songs include the Quebecois number “En Filant Ma Quenouille,” best known from Kate & Anna McGarrigle’s 1980 French Record; and “Sun To Sun,”a working person’s lament at being cheated by the system. Kater’s version of “Moonshiner,” is different version than the one most commonly known (from Bob Dylan among others). This one, from a woman’s point of view, she learned from Emily Elkins of the West Virginia band The New Young Fogies. It has lovely multi-part harmony on the choruses from two contemporary Canadian folk singers, Melanie Brulee of Quebec and Jadea Kelly of Ontario. Kater’s best vocal delivery on the album comes on “West Virginia Boys,” a traditional song with a very old sound to it, delivered as a warning to girls not to marry one of those fellows. The album ends strongly with an old-timey gospel-type song by Kater, arranged with modern-sounding dissonant harmonies by sister Julia Kater, a graphic artist who designed the album package.
Sorrow Bound is a very impressive debut from an artist who is obviously on the rise.
(Kingswood, 2015)
