Kaia Kater unleashes the banjo’s innovative energy on ‘Strange Medicine’

There was a point early in her career when Kaia Kater was beginning to feel constrained by the banjo and the history tied to her instrument.

“I wondered, ‘Why am I, as a mixed-race woman living in Canada, playing this Appalachian music that has serious associations with the white [American] South?’ ”

But Kater’s perspective changed completely after seeing The Carolina Chocolate Drops perform. The string band, which included Rhiannon Giddens, Leyla McCalla and Dom Flemons in its rotation, helped Kater connect the dots between the banjo and its roots in West Africa.

Kaia Kater | photo by Janice Reid | courtesy of the artist

“It actually made me feel like I could truly claim this instrument,” Kater says. “I could do whatever I wanted. I could just be as creative as I wanted to be on this instrument. Prior to this, I was trying to fit into this idea of what old-time music was — ‘Oh, I have to play this perfectly’; ‘Oh, I have to honor the traditions of where this comes from because this is not my music’ — and I think it flipped the script for me. There’s a reason you’re attracted to this sound — this is an innovative instrument. You don’t have to be a museum for this thing. You can put your own stamp on it, like so many of your ancestors did.”

In this session, Kater talks about using the banjo in exciting new ways on her latest album, Strange Medicine. It’s an innovative and adventurous record featuring appearances from Allison Russell, Aoife O’Donovan and Taj Mahal.

Kater also talks about some of the record’s more unconventional influences, like minimalist composer Steve Reich.

“I started to think about it less as, ‘Okay, what genre is this? What kind of album am I making?’ and more ‘Okay, what sounds do I like together?’,” she says.

Plus, Kaia Kater performs live for World Cafe.

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Miguel Perez. Our senior producer is Kimberly Junod and our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.