Dark Carnival

Kate Green is gifted with a fine voice; she uses it with feeling and precision, which makes her a terrific singer. A Dark Carnival proves she has range, taste, an ear for a story, and talent as a writer, too. She begins with the ballad ‘Lady Diamond’, one of two here that touch on the subject of violence against women (sadly forever relevant), the other being ‘Bows of London’, which like Lal Waterson’s ‘Fine Horseman’, is tricky to sing. Green nails them both, capturing their uncanny quality. ‘When the Levee Breaks’, Memphis Minnie’s song about the Mississippi floods of 1927 (familiar from Bob Dylan’s Modern Times) is very different.

Jed Grimes’ guitar is marvellously melancholy, Green’s vocal plaintive, slightly distant and Rob File does some electronic sound design. It all works. Then comes the first of Green’s own compositions, ‘Renegades (of Love and Rage)’, a tribute to Extinction Rebellion, is surprising with its lively Latin rhythm. This is a carnival, though sombre. Green and producer Grimes have assembled a classy ensemble, whose work on ‘Mi Amigo’, her song about the crash of a B-17 Flying Fortress in Sheffield in 1944, in which the pilot avoided children playing, and all ten American airmen died, is, with country blues guitar, swirling Hammond organ and bluegrassy mandolin. It is a fitting and moving tribute.