Washington-based singer-songwriter Dulcie Taylor uses her fragile voice and deeply personal lyrics to their best advantage on the title track of “Diamond & Glass.” She is able to sustain the spell through 12 new songs on her follow-up to her self-produced and Washington Area Music Association-award-winning 2000 disc, “Other Side of the Bed.”

Highlights of the record include the edgy electric guitar of Michael Landau and nice guitar flourishes by producer George Nauful, who co-wrote the title track with Miss Taylor. Throughout the record, Miss Taylor’s quavering, jazz-tinged voice combines with the tremolo guitar to great effect.

Miss Taylor explores various aspects of love in her lyrics. In “Easy for You,” her song forgives a lover for ending a relationship but asks how he could walk away so easily. “I Have a Ring” is a coming-of-age story about how, in maturity, a person comes to understand why relationships just don’t work out. These same themes of relationships, pain and loss come through in “You and Me” and “Sometimes Love Ain’t Enough.”
On “It Ain’t Love” and “Spirit of Love,” Miss Taylor evokes a timelessness with the sound of her dulcimer playing.

A finalist in the Chris Austin Songwriting Contest at MerleFest in 2001 and winner of five awards in the 2000 Mid-Atlantic Songwriting Contest, Miss Taylor is making eight appearances in the Washington area between the final days of June and the end of July in support of her new release.