First, the bona fides: Nashville-based singer and songwriter Gretchen Peters' songs have been recorded by Etta James, Faith Hill and Brian Adams, among others; her song "Independence Day" was a massive hit for Martina McBride in 1993; and she was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2014.
While her words are often interpreted by other artists, you'll hear in this set that Peters is a gripping performer herself. "I have a theory that there are two kinds of people — there's people who find sad songs depressing," she notes with a wink, "then there's us."
In her fifth performance on Mountain Stage since 1996, Peters is accompanied by her husband Barry Walsh on piano and by members of the Mountain Stage Band — Steve Hill on bass, Ammed Solomon on drums and Michael Lipton on electric guitar.
Peters' latest, Dancing withthe Beast,is filled with compelling, honest songwriting, exhibiting an ability to deeply inhabit characters and convey delicate scenarios, like the vulnerable family in "Wichita" or the mother in "Disappearing Act" (a song we didn't have time for on the radio broadcast).
Peters will be touring extensively in 2019, performing throughout the U.K. as part of the Transatlantic Sessions (with Jerry Douglas, Tim O'Brien, Cara Dillon and others) in February, and as part of Three Women and the Truth, her songwriting trio with Mary Gauthier and Eliza Gilkyson.
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