Eliza Carthy

Eliza Carthy, who will be performing at Warwick Arts Centre on May 26, is touring to promote her new album Neptune, the third to feature her own songs rather than those from the criss-crossing English, Irish and Scottish traditions.

But people expecting gentle acoustic laments will be surprised by an album that contains reggae, soul and jazz, even though she has dipped into dub, drum’n’bass on Red Rice and many other styles.

The arrangements are fresher than her last album, Dreams of Breathing Underwater, which was recorded over seven years with three bands. Neptune was written, rehearsed and recorded in short order, and Carthy says the ‘rich’ sound of double bass, cello and her own violin or viola will be similar to the one audiences will hear live.

It’s also a very personal album, with songs about the claustrophobia of old relationships and the hope of new ones.

Carthy said: “I lived for ten years. You do end up writing things about yourself. Certainly as an interpreter of traditional music the songs I chose when I did Red Rice it was traditional music but in essence it was a break-up album. You’re drawn to certain types of songs at different points in your life.”

There are also her observations on modern life. One song, Britain is a Car Park, revels in the irony of a once leafy island covered in asphalt and deserted by its natives, who have gone to live in Spain.

Less ironic, and perhaps inevitable, is the uncomfortable fact that someone who had chosen to champion the English tradition should attract the admiration of British National Party leader Nick Griffin.

Carthy has been steely in her rejection of far right politics, and said it did not make her question her focus on English songs.

She said: “One of the reasons I’m proud to perform English traditional music is that I don’t want the music to be the exclusive terrain of people like that. The notion of pure Englishness is utter bollocks but the music that has come out of the community from this part of that island is worth exploring.

“I have time and an interest for people and places and seeing how things work. People are kidding themselves if they don’t think the world moves on all the time.”

• Read this week’s Courier or Kenilworth Weekly News for the full interview.