Probably the most inspiring music-related place Gretchen Peters has seen is the Blues Highway, also known as Route 61.
“Driving that stretch of road from Memphis to New Orleans and seeing it with my own eyes deepened my understanding of how and why the blues took root there,” Peters says. “Looking at a map of where the founding mothers and fathers were born, it’s astonishing that most of them came from within a very small radius. But once you’re there, it makes sense. I’m a big believer that place has a huge influence on us, and the Mississippi Delta is a mysterious, confounding, pitiless and often bleak place, with a very dark history. Of course, that’s where the blues would be born.”
Another “deeply moving place” Peters has visited is the Cave of Niaux in southwestern France.
“Deep inside the cave are Paleolithic cave drawings, which are astonishing,” she says. “But there is also a large, cathedral-like opening in the middle of the cave, near the drawings. The acoustics are incredible — the reverb decay seems to take forever. Our French guide told me that singing, music and chanting were a part of religious ceremonies in the cave in prehistoric times and invited any singers to try singing in the cave. So I very quickly volunteered. It was spine-tingling to think my voice was mingling with other voices from 15,000 years ago.”
In a different way, it was also spine-tingling to watch Peters, Mary Gauthier and Jaimee Harris perform together last fall at Infinity Hall in Norfolk, Connecticut. Accompanied on piano and accordion by Peters’ husband Barry Walsh, the three women’s voices and musicianship were outstanding. But the most astonishing thing was hearing self-penned song after song with such depth, warmth and beauty. I was, quite frankly, taken aback by the songwriting brilliance of all three and found the show one of the best I attended all year.
Peters’ songs have been covered by numerous big names, including Neil Diamond, Bonnie Raitt, Trisha Yearwood, Pam Tillis, George Strait, Martina McBride and Patty Loveless. The 11 songs on her most recent album, 2018’s Dancing with the Beast, are every bit as good.
“My hope for Dancing with the Beast was that it would bring women’s and girl’s stories to the forefront and, maybe, create some dialog around that,” says Peters, who is based in Nashville and also has a home on the Florida Panhandle. “It’s a rather bleak collection of songs, but I think there’s deep beauty and even heroism in these characters. For me, that’s the point. I’m always drawn to characters who are persisting and resisting in dire circumstances. Quiet heroism is the most moving kind. To persist without any expectation of reward or recognition is a remarkable thing.”
The album, Peters says, felt very personal.
“These are not my stories, but they are all filtered through my own experience of being female,” she says. “That felt important and, to be honest, a bit daunting. ‘The Boy From Rye’ was the heart of the album, and writing that song was exciting and terrifying.
“It was exciting, because I felt like it was new territory. I don’t know if there are many songs about this particular facet of girlhood, and it was terrifying, because I really, really wanted to get it right. The response from fans — both men and women — has been so gratifying. I often hear some version of ‘I’ve never heard a song that deals with this before, and it’s devastating.’ That makes me very happy.”
Plenty of other artists’ songs have made her happy through the years. She mentions three albums as the best ones she has listened to.
“Like probably every other singer-songwriter, my list has to include Joni Mitchell’s Blue,” Peters says. “It’s a huge work of art in a very, very small frame. The instrumentation is so sparse and what production there is disappears behind Joni’s songs, her playing and her voice. It’s the ultimate confessional singer-songwriter album.”
Peters names Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks as her second-favorite album.
“I will never get to the end of why I love this album so much,” she says. “It feels so coherent, like it all flowed out of him spontaneously. Of course, that’s not true, as evidenced by the release of the original tracks, which he rerecorded just before putting the album out. This is what makes it such a triumph. Maybe the hardest thing to do is work on something so hard, so painstakingly, and ultimately have it feel so effortless and visceral. It is a deeply vulnerable album, maybe the most powerful group of songs about heartbreak I’ve heard.”
No. 3 on Peters’ all-time list is the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
“As a kid, learning how to play the guitar, I was drawn to folk music, partly because it seemed learnable. The Beatles, on the other hand, were every bit as fascinating to me but seemed completely out of reach. It was as if they existed on a distant star. It sounds crazy, but it took me years to figure out that their songs were written, They seemed more like things that had always existed. They were elemental and perfect, and each one created its own universe. I could pick any of several Beatles albums, but this one came out when I was 9 years old and completely susceptible to its magic.”
More recently, Peters was susceptible to the magic of the late Leonard Cohen. She says a concert by Cohen in Portland, Oregon, in 2010 was the best concert she has seen in recent years — and maybe ever.
“There are so many reasons for that,” Peters says. “They are the sheer weight of his artistic output at that point in his career, the triumph of his late-life success and his generosity with his brilliant band. It was thrilling to see his joy at connecting with an arena full of people after decades of obscurity, him giving each band member a moment in the spotlight and his absolute presence in the moment. It was a breathtaking master class in performance —never mind the stunning catalog, the songwriting prowess. He seemed to be in the moment for the entire show, and the love flowing from and to the stage was palpable and so, so moving. And he was in his late 70s!”
Website: https://www.gretchenpeters.com
Additional note: On March 26, Gretchen Peters will perform at
City Vineyard at Pier 26 in NYC (233 West St.)
7:30pm $20 Adv / $22 Door