Music Review: Katherine Nagy, ‘Sweetlove’
The Ireland-raised, Indiana-based singer-songwriter’s transporting new album is an intimate love letter delivered with gospel fervor.
Katherine Nagy’s Sweetlove album artwork.
“I’ve been baring my soul
to folks I don’t know
trying to figure out where I belong.
I’m done trying to hide …”
Katherine Nagy takes us to church—and lures us into the romantic and life-changing corners of its architecture—in her new release Sweetlove, which came out August 23rd, 2024. It’s a church where conviction and devotion are mainstays of the liturgy, but also where gospel choruses and rich organ parts increase your faith in the details of “teacup(s) with flowers” and throwback “Rayburn stoves.”
The enjambment of the words “Sweet” and “love” for the title of this new release from Katherine Nagy makes one pause. This album plays like an intimate whisper to someone you’re obsessed with—of course you’d put both “sweet” and “love” together as a term of endearment. There’s no time or room for space between those words when love captures and obsesses. That kind of passion lives and breathes effortlessly through this record.
Throughout this substantial recording (13 songs / 43 minutes), the title track is most memorable for its R&B influence on Nagy’s delightful, pinpoint-precise vocals. There’s a tension there that Nagy exploits in the grooviest of ways. She plays her straightforward and honeyed voice against the soulful movement of gospel choir harmonies (throughout but especially on “Carry On”), and it highlights the delightful bends and swerves in which Katherine Nagy excels. The soulful feel of this track smooths the corners, and frees Nagy’s voice to dance easily in and out of expectation. It’s readily apparent why “Sweetlove” was selected as the title track.
“Country Home” evokes late 60s / early 70s country chord progressions that serve as a solid base for Nagy’s controlled, ethereal, and breathy vocals. There’s a patience in her delivery that makes the listener want to lean back into the world this song conjures and simply savor.
“Falling Again” follows “Country Home” and builds on the theme of surprising and delightful chord changes. Nagy takes every advantage of pointing out the fascinating and beautiful melodic possibilities these chord combinations offer. The changes evoke notes that Nagy bends to blue. It’s in these moments that Nagy’s skill and lovely vocal qualities excel. She harkens back to a dream of late 80s country group The Forester Sisters. Here is where Nagy’s voice seems most at home—precise and supple, backed by breathtaking supporting instrumentation and harmony.
Katherine Nagy. Photo credit: Robert Zyromski.
The standout on this record is the song “All Done,” a duet with producer/multi-instrumentalist Austin Johnson. Nagy’s voice leads off this track with skillful precision. Johnson takes the second verse, and the magic happens when their two voices meet at the chorus and begin swapping and swirling phrases, riding thermals of vocal runs that float higher and higher throughout the rest of the track:
Is this what it feels like?
This is what it feels like
The instrumentation on Sweetlove is fantastic and deeply skilled. From a single acoustic guitar strum to the lithe flatpicking break on “Work Is My Prayer,” the listener is carried along through production that feels just right. The mandolin on “Moonlight Kiss” transports the listener to Parisienne sidewalks along lamplit streets. The harmonic bar tones of the steel guitar on “Country Home” simply soar. The truthy weight of the organ ornamentation on “Sweet Fantasy,” “Spirit Back Again,” “Sweet Love,” and “Carry On” develops these songs into delightful vignettes that trace both faith and love. The Wes Montgomery-like jazz guitar on “Keeps Getting Better” dazzles. The intricate dobro work is both the sound of delight and the dive to sadness throughout.
If you believe that the song reveals the songwriter, Katherine Nagy is a songwriter with a deep faith and a passionate heart. There are moments of transcendence on this record when the bass line, the force of the gospel choir harmonies, the smooth flourishes of Austin Johnson’s phrasing, or the delightfully surprising chord changes push against expectation. Katherine Nagy safely sings us through these seams in the most honest, straightforward, and lovely way, and it is when she pushes against that straightforwardness that her true artistry enchants.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Doyle Turner. Photo credit: no_aesthetic_stills.
Doyle Turner loves words. Whether it is shaping syllables into songs, poems, early morning journals, handwritten thank yous, lists, or album reviews, he is in a deep and abiding relationship with his college-ruled paper, Uniball Signo 207 .7mm pens, and mostly his keyboard. A good day is spent taking pictures, mailing things, making the words convey the precise meaning, driving, and singing.
