Kaïa Kater is an award-winning singer-songwriter and banjo player whose bold voice and literary songwriting have made her one of the most compelling artists in contemporary roots music. Her new album, Strange Medicine (Free Dirt Records), marks a fearless evolution: deeply personal yet expansive, it channels the power of oppressed voices throughout history—particularly women and people of the global majority—and reshapes it into lush, genre-blending soundscapes that pull from folk, jazz, minimalism, and film scores.

Co-produced with Joe Grass (Elisapie, The Barr Brothers) and featuring collaborators like Aoife O’Donovan, Allison Russell, and Taj Mahal, Strange Medicine is a tapestry of imagined and real stories—from Caribbean revolutionaries to Salem witches—interwoven with Kater’s own reflections on identity, creativity, and agency. Influenced by her time in Montréal and her background in film composition, she reclaims the banjo and Americana traditions through a distinctly Black feminist lens, defying the expectations often placed on her as a woman of color in roots music.

With accolades from NPR, Rolling Stone, Folk Alley, and beyond, Kater’s work has always pushed boundaries, but Strange Medicine is her most fearless yet—an intimate reckoning and celebration of self that invites listeners to sit with grief, defiance, and transformation. As she writes in dialogue with history, she makes space for the stories that haven’t been told—and carves out a future shaped by truth, power, and radical imagination.

“Kater is rapt, inquisitive, straining for intimate, embodied understanding that transcends mere familiarity.” –NPR

“…plaintive, mesmerizing…writes and performs with the skill of a folk-circuit veteran…” – Rolling Stone

“You want some authenticity in your folk music or bluegrass – I give you Kaïa Kater.” – No Depression

“A star in the making…” – Folk Alley

Vinegar Hill Music Theatre is an independently-owned event space located at 53 Old Post Road in Arundel, ME. Our charming, historic barn and outdoor garden provide an ideal backdrop for an unforgettable, intimate evening! Learn more here.