My streak of exceptional music continued last night; I saw Kaia Kater at Common Ground Coffeehouse in Dobbs Ferry. My official position there is “Cute Merch Guy;” make sure to not forget the “Cute.” Thanks to another volunteer, Elana, this is an easy place for me to get to; I take the MetroNorth from the Botanical Gardens, a ten minute walk, and Elana picks me up at Scarsdale and drives me to the venue. On the ride up something happened to me for the first time in 65 years of taking railroads; the train went right by the station without even slowing down. There were no announcements, not sign, and no train stopping. Everyone on the platform was confused and trying to figure out what to do. I had no alternate way of getting to the show. I was about to text Elana that the best I could do is take the train that leaves half an hour later and doesn’t go all the way up to Scarsdale, when somebody saw the train heading south on the northbound track. When the train arrived we boarded, no explanation was given. No apology was given. They might have noticed that they missed the stop immediately, but it takes a long distance to stop a train and the operator had to move from one end of the train to the other as what was the back became the front of the train. It felt like forever, but we left only six minutes late.
When we arrived, Kaia was doing sound check. I did what I always do, socialized with Carter, the head honcho, and other volunteers. Carter asked about Kaia’s bass player and I blanked on his name. He’s someone that I became friendly with last time I saw her. Then I realized that it wasn’t her regular bass player, but another bass player that I know whose name I also forgot. What I knew was that I saw him the other night when I saw Aoife O’Donovan and Hawktail. I didn’t say hi then as I was blanking on his name, he was talking to my friends and I hoped somebody would say it but nobody did. Her regular bass player is Andrew Ryan, I just needed a little nudge to my memory, and the one with her last night was Jared Engel. I have no idea where I first saw him, and I don’t know him well, but I’ve seen him many times. Today when I went to tag him I saw his Facebook profile and the two things he mentions are iced coffee and baseball. He’s one of my people.
After sound check I got some time to catch up with Kaia and eat my dinner, General Tso’s chicken. If you ever read a Wise Madness where I mention eating and I don’t say what I ate that means it’s either being written by an imposter, or I’m being held hostage. If you can’t get in touch, with me immediately inform the police. I’m relying on you guys.
I’m seeing far too many exceptional artists, if I keep describing everyone I see in glowing terms you’ll think that what I call special, isn’t special. That couldn’t be further from the truth. I have exceedingly high standards. Musicians that are routinely called great I think of as mediocre. I’ve come up with the phrase “nice people playing nice songs nicely” to dismiss a huge number of musicians. It’s rare for me to go as far as call a musician great. The thing is that I go out of my way to see them, and by chance their tour dates have clustered.
When I first saw Kaia at NERFA, eight years ago, she was playing very traditional Appalachian music on the banjo and body percussion. Since then she’s expanded without ever giving those things up. I will often compare her to Nina Simone with a banjo. Her writing has become personal and political. She is exploring her Grenadian roots. She is part of that special class of musicians that is unfettered by the expectations as others. She follows her muse. I have to start comparing her to Anaïs Mitchell and Jean Rohe. She’s also in the class of singer whose voice is so beautiful that it’s enough to captivate an audience, but whose writing, musicianship, and expressiveness overshadows her voice to me.
A fun thing about doing merch is that I hear what people in the audience think. One person said that just looking at her you can tell that she’s a serious musician. I see her before she goes on stage and what I see is a delightful, charming, and yes silly young woman. Silliness and chocolate are the ways into my heart. Don’t just a person by their looks or even from their demeanor. That’s what Amadeus was about. Genius resided in a silly, hedonistic vessel. It was still genius of the highest degree. I once read that people’s impression of Einstein was often as a clown. Maybe that’s why he’s my hero of heroes.
I knew that Kaia had to pretty much drive by my house to get home to Brooklyn, so I asked her and Jared for a ride. They said yes! I told you they were really nice. That gave me more time to hang out with them. It also saved me at least half an hour. I got home just 15 minutes after my train would have left the Scarsdale station. I have to remind myself that I spent 35 years giving other people rides. I’m just balancing my giri.
I should go to sleep but I want to discuss one more thing. There was almost a full house last night yet when asked it turns out only a few people were already familiar with Kaia. Why were the others there? They had faith in Carter’s taste. That goal of every person that curates music is to develop that level of trust in their audience. They come to shows because they know the curator won’t disappoint them. Carter does an amazing job. He never presents nice people playing nice songs nicely. Nobody is getting a place on his stage with their personality.
I’m going to see Kaia twice more before summer, once at Café Wha, and once at Voices in the Heights. I would love if some of My Gentle Readers were join me. If you do, come over and say hi.
Wise Madness 