Jake Blount and Kaia Kater

Join us for a powerful evening of banjo and roots music from two modern stars of folk as we welcome Jake Blount and Kaia Kater to Swallow Hill on Saturday, March 11.

A powerfully gifted musician and a scholar of Black American music, Jake Blount speaks ardently about the African roots of the banjo and the subtle, yet profound ways African Americans have shaped and defined the amorphous categories of roots music and Americana. Nominated for Artist of the Year at the International Folk Music Awards, his latest album, The New Faith, is a towering achievement of dystopian Afrofuturism, filled with hope for salvation and righteous anger in equal measure.

A Montreal-born Grenadian-Canadian, Kaia Kater grew up between two worlds: her family’s deep ties to folk music and the years she spent soaking up Appalachian music in West Virginia. Her old-time banjo-picking skills, deft arrangements, and songwriting abilities have landed her in the spotlight in North America and the UK, garnering critical acclaim from outlets such as NPR, Rolling Stone, and No Depression.