No one has put folk through more rinses than Carthy the younger; trip-hop, drum’n’bass, cabaret and marching bands are among styles she’s mixed with mournful ballad, jolly shanty and her own songbook. Here she leads a 12-piece ensemble – brass, fiddles, the works – on a bravura romp through songs old and new. It’s a less rumbustious beast than the defunct Bellowhead, though its thumping rock drums can be equally wearing. Among the standouts are a theatrical version of Ewan MacColl’s The Fitter’s Song, the crazed instrumental Love Lane, and Carthy’s own You Know Me, an empathic comment on the refugee crisis. Teddy Thompson, Damien Dempsey and MC Dizraeli lend guest vocals to Carthy’s own, and her fiddle-playing is as incendiary as ever.
