We don’t do the typical going to the pub on New Year’s Eve in our household, we choose to stay in in the warm instead, feet up in front of the TV with a glass or two of our favourite tipple, far from the boisterous idiots who’ve had one too many WKD Blue and think they can fight the world, and close enough to our bed to be tucked up safe and sound well before the clock strikes midnight.

What has become somewhat of a tradition for Sonia and I however is our New Year’s Day pilgrimage to the Kitchen Garden Café in Kings Heath, Birmingham to see Edwina Hayes perform live, and that’s exactly what we did this year.

The Kitchen Garden Cafe’s exactly that by day, a café which offers a great range of homemade and vegan dishes and fair trade coffee, but by night, it becomes a great little venue for solo artists and duo’s alike, discreetly tucked away behind Fletcher’s Bar on York Road, a kind of blink and you’ll miss it sort of venue built of bare brick, concrete slabs, and rustic wood, yet comfortable and cosy inside, especially when it’s a sell out show. We keep saying we’ll visit the bar for a drink or three at a time when Edwina isn’t performing, but in the four years we’ve found ourselves saying this, it’s still yet to happen.

I first heard Edwina’s voice on some obscure radio station when I was flicking through to find something relaxing to listen to during the early hours one morning back in 2009 whilst I was sat at my computer working on some photography edits, unable to sleep and stressed out over one thing or another, and knowing that neither the Iron Maiden nor Slayer back catalogues were going to help, and it’s at this time I came across a beautiful breath of fresh air, a voice that instantly calmed me and helped me to relax, and I couldn’t wait the hear the radio presenter name the artist and the song so that I could investigate further, but as the song ended, another one began, and I never did get to hear who sang that beautiful song. What I did have however were some of the lyrics, that is if I’d remembered them correctly of course.

I quickly entered the lyrics I’d remembered into google and a video cropped up of Randy Newman singing a song titled ‘Feels Like Home’, after a quick listen I knew this was the song I’d just heard, but by a completely different artist, so I did another search, this time for covers of that same song and the name Edwina Hayes appeared. I’d never heard Edwina’s name before, and as far as I knew I’d never heard any of her music. This had me intrigued, if just one song could relax me and calm me the way that one had, what other material did she have out there? It turned out that Edwina’s version of ‘Feels Like Home’ was used as part of the soundtrack to the movie ‘My Sisters Keeper’ and that’s the reason it had been played on the radio that day.

I soon came to learn that Edwina was a well established singer songwriter who was highly regarded within the folk genre, she’d played regularly in both London and Nashville, Tennessee and had two solo studio albums out, ‘Out on My Own’ and ‘Pour Me a Drink’, as well as performing as part of a trio on a previous album titled ‘Tougher Than Love’ with fellow artists under the name Hummingbird, a group who’s popularity gained them a spot on the Glastonbury Festival Acoustic Stage back in 2007. Edwina has since gone on to release two further solo studio albums (to date), ‘Good Thing’s Happen Over Coffee’ and ‘Ruby Rose’, as well as performing as part of the band The Mile Roses on their debut and self titled album.

From the very first time I heard Edwina’s voice I was hooked and she has remained my go to artist whenever I need to relax, think, or even just take time out, so when Sonia and I decided we were getting married and that we wanted a live singer to perform, there really was only one person we had in mind, but would someone with such a great musical background, someone who has toured extensively as support to the likes of Jools Holland and Nanci Griffith, and someone who has performed live at Glastonbury Festival even give us a passing glance, well yes she would, and she did. On the 16th March 2024, Edwina performed live at both our wedding ceremony and at the wedding meal that followed. performing that very first song I ever heard her sing some fifteen years before as Sonia walked down the aisle, something we will be forever grateful for and a time we will never forget.

Sonia and I are not just honoured that Edwina agreed to perform live on our wedding day, we’re also honoured to call her a friend and we can’t wait to see her live again this Spring when she returns to Birmingham, if not sooner that is, there’s always a road trip and who knows what tomorrow may bring?