Kate Mann: Things Look Different When the Sun Goes Down

“Some might say she’s lucky, all her dreams come true, but the problem is that most of them are nightmares,” she sings to us in the first song. A woman in a later track gets shot. Things in Kate Mann land are rough, and she tells us about them in a firm, swinging voice that buckles a little with empathy. That US country music sound of hardships defied and endured. Singing “La Llorona”, she smacks the double-l down like a pack of cards on a table. It’s almost like flirting. Mann plays guitar, other musicians provide fiddle, bass, and sundries. A swaying, strong-jawed album. Trivia: the musician used to be a teacher. I imagine students looking up at this dreadlocked vision tucking into a song about a corpse: “Miss Mann?”