Susanna: Go Dig My Grave

Embrace the darkness and occasional beams of light in Susanna’s soul searching songbook.

Susanna has never been one to shy away from powerful emotional themes and existential questions in her music. 

The night will be centred around Susanna’s extraordinary voice, hinting at influences from Joni Mitchell and Judy Collins to earlier operatic singers and the experimental musician Klaus Nomi. 

From the slow, tired rhythm of ‘Rye Whiskey’ to the English murder ballad ‘The Three Ravens’, Susanna makes connections between the shared pain and horror of the European and American traditions. With her version of Lou Reed’s ‘Perfect Day’, she expresses a more hopeful sense of the transformational qualities of music itself.

The dynamic ensemble sees Susanna reunited with baroque harp player Giovanna Pessi, plus acclaimed folk/jazz contemporary music accordionist Frode Haltli, and the violinist Sara-Jane Summers.

Her albums If Grief Could Wait (2011) and Go Dig My Grave (2018) combined traditional blues and folk songs with baroque instrumentation and her own distinctive vocal interpretations. Add some Henry Purcell, Lou Reed, and Susanna’s own songs, and you end up with a profoundly personal collection of dark songs with deep roots through centuries of American and European musical heritage.

At times unnerving and searingly raw, her live rendition of material from those two records includes songs of lost love, abandonment, and a merciless thirst for liquor.