When Dulcie Taylor left the East Coast for California, it was a gift to local Americana fans. This gifted singer-songwriter fit right into the local music scene, playing all around the Central Coast, winning Best Songwriter in the New Times Music Awards twice—accolades she could add to her two East Coast WAMMIEs (Washington D.C. area music awards).

She recently reached back into her 20-year recording career to compile a six-song EP of some of her most popular songs, which have been “redesigned with new twists and approaches,” according to press materials. These previously released songs have been “remixed, remastered, with some rerecording,” and the results are nothing short of astonishingly beautiful. Also, a bit depressing!

The EP opens with “Easy for You,” a song about a failing relationship: “I don’t blame you, baby, for saying goodbye/ If your heart isn’t in it, you surely got that right/ I don’t blame you, baby, do what you have to do/ It just seems so easy for you/ Why is it so easy for you.” Her songs get to big emotions in a hurry, like “Diamond & Glass,” whose chorus sings “Love can cut like a diamond/ Love can shatter like glass.” And that voice! Nuanced, emotive, and glorious as it moves into upper registers!

“To Be A Fool” finds a relationship intact but under stress: “When we look at each other you know what we see, you know what we see/ A woman who loves you, a man who loves me/ Whatever comes I’m here for you, I’m here for you/ There’s very little I wouldn’t do/ But there’s one thing you don’t ask me/ I love you too much for you to ask me/ To be a fool.”

Men, am I right? Jerks!

I think my favorite track is the sultry ballad “On a Rainy Day,” that feels like a sweaty slow dance on a humid night but is really about another failing romance: “Telling myself to let you go/ Is like standing in a storm telling the wind not to blow/ I’ll wait to cry on a rainy day.” By the time you get to “Corazon Frio (Cold Heart),” you’ll be worrying if Taylor is OK. Her heart’s been broken again! “Corazon frio, cold heart/ What makes me love you still/ Corazon frio, how can I get through/ Freezing water that surrounds a frozen will.”

These are stirring laments, and I wish I could tell you the EP ends on a hopeful note, but the closing track, “You and Me,” is about the last gasps of another failed relationship: “This can’t be you and me/ Paying a third party/ To help us put our hearts back together again/ This can’t be you and me/ Hoping a total stranger/ Can help us get across this ocean of pain/ Talk, talk, analyze/ Who did what and why/ Talk, talk, talk, deny/ Cry, cry.”

The horn on this track is absolutely gorgeous. Put this EP on when you’re feeling blue and want to commiserate with someone who knows how to sing about doomed romance. You can also listen to Taylor on Spotify and her YouTube channel, which has had 3.7 million views.