Regular Columnists

Artist: Karen Fay
Album: “Empiric Lyric”
CD Review: The music is piano based rock with a singer/songwriter emphasis. Translated that means Fay does the lion's share of the writing, plays piano and sings. She is joined in co-writing the music by her musicians, Jim Wooding and Danny Patterson and Danny Levin.

So much co-writing runs the risk of sounding like a jumble but this is definitely a democratic collaboration. It is a seamless collection of pop songs and strong musicianship. Fay’s expressive voice is on top and stays there for each song. There is a nice variation in style ranging from folky ballads to edgy electric guitar tinged numbers.

Every piano playing woman gets the unavoidable comparisons to every other piano playing woman out there so let me tell you a few things this music is NOT. It's not as purposefully dramatic as Tori Amos but there is a definite passion and edge to the music. It's not as Burt Bacharach as Aimee Mann but there is a strong pop sense here such as in one of my favorites “Love is Here”. And let me add that some of the songs are acoustic guitar based anyway, like “He’s Leaving” and “Knowing What Love Is”.

“Empiric Lyric” is a fine showcase for the songwriting and singing talent of Karen Fay and her very talented team.

http://www.karenfay.net