Kate Fagan – Diamond Wheel

CD REVIEW – Kate Fagan – Diamond Wheel
by Peggy Seeger (US)

What a treat, an album made by a poet who is a musician – or alternatively a musician who is a poet.
Steeped in folk music all her life, Kate Fagan is coming into her own on her first album, Diamond Wheel.
Her high range is now delicate now commanding, her low range glowing and precise.
She is musically literate and the songs are very singable, the accompaniments excellent.
The melodies are memorable and varied.
She combines her education in literature with her knowledge of folksong, giving not only a solidity but a fanciful creativity that makes you listen to every line.

There’s a story for every road
And a riddle for every rhyme
Every high mountain once was a cold sea,
Shall I go your way or will you go mine?

The texts are sometimes straightforward, sometimes almost mystical.
Kate the Poet expects you to fill in the holes in the logic that lead you from the beginning to the end of the song.
Kate the Musician provides variety: one or two songs are bleak and harsh (“O Janey Janey”), others begin solo and draw you in as the harmonies develop.
Then there’s the plain old passionate love song: “Love me now, love me now”… “my door is open” – and she wants the key to yours.
A thoroughly adult album, where the music speaks for itself and the singer is content to facilitate.
These songs have been carefully crafted – no filler lines or easy get-out endless repetitions of the same words.
Best of all, not a ‘yeah yeah’ anywhere.
The album held me from beginning to end.
Only twelve tracks – and then you put track one on again and go with her down her “highway of rainbows”.
Kate Fagan – Diamond Wheel