Kaia Kater Releases New Single “In Montreal” featuring Allison Russell

With Black Country very much in the news right now, Kaia Kater’s new single is a love letter to her chosen instrument, the banjo, and a nod to her early roots both in Appalachian stringband music and “in Montreal,” where she grew up. “Simply, this is a reflection on the gravitational pull of my hometown, Montreal” says Kater of the new single, “In Montreal” which features fellow Grenadian-Canadian and Montreal native Allison Russell. “I’ve left and returned so many times that it now feels like ghosts of my former selves haunt the city. During the deep winter of 2021 with its short days and long nights, I wanted to write an upbeat song about a poet feeling lost and aimless, tectonic plates stacked in their sink—a nod to Leonard Cohen, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, and all the other incredible songwriters of Montreal.” 

The song’s complex rhythms and arrangements come from Kater’s recent experimental and compositional influences. In fact, Kater’s new album, Strange Medicine (coming May 17, 2024 on Free Dirt Records) as a whole benefits from her studies in film composition. Recently, Kater was in Austin for SXSW where a new film, My Dead Friend Zoe, that she sang and co-wrote a song for, won the Narrative Spotlight Audience Award. 

The next single from Kaia Kater’s album will be “The Witch” featuring Aoife O’Donovan coming May 1, 2024 before the album drops May 17. Two previous singles have been released already, "Fédon" featuring Taj Mahal, and "The Internet."