Search - Gretchen Peters :: Blackbirds

Fresh off her induction into the prestigious Nashville
Songwriters Hall of Fame, Gretchen Peters has confirmed the
Feb 10 release of her new album 'Blackbirds.' Co-produced
with Doug Lancio and Barry Walsh and recorded in Nashville,
the album features a who's who of modern American roots
music: Jerry Douglas, Jason Isbell, Jimmy LaFave, Will
Kimbrough, Kim Richey, Suzy Bogguss and more. But it's not
the guests that make 'Blackbirds' the most poignant and
moving album of the GRAMMY-nominee's storied career; it s
the impeccable craftsmanship, her ability to capture the kind of
complex, conflicting, and overwhelming emotional moments we
might otherwise try to hide and instead shine a light of truth
and understanding onto them.
The eleven tracks on 'Blackbirds' face down death with a dark
grit and delicate beauty. "During the summer of 2013 when I
began writing songs for 'Blackbirds,' there was one week when
I went to three memorial services and a wedding," remembers
Peters. "It dawned on me that this is the way it goes as you get
older - the memorial services start coming with alarming
frequency and the weddings are infrequent and thus somehow
more moving."
She found herself drawn to artists courageous enough to face
their own aging and mortality in their work (Leonard Cohen,
Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Nick Lowe), but noticed all the
material was coming from a male perspective. "As brave an
artistic risk as it may be for a man, it s much riskier for a
woman to speak about it," says Peters, whose incredible
catalog of songs including "Independence Day" and "On A
Bus To St. Cloud" have been recorded by everyone from
Martina McBride and Neil Diamond to Etta James and Trisha
Yearwood. "Aging seems to be a taboo subject for female
singer-songwriters, in part because our value has depended so
much on our youth and sexuality. I want to write about that stuff
because it s real, it s there, and so few women seem to be
talking about it."
ail.
'Blackbirds' follows Peters' 2012 album 'Hello Cruel World,'
which NPR called "the album of her career" and Uncut said
"establishes her as the natural successor to Lucinda Williams."
If anything, though, 'Blackbirds' truly establishes Peters as a
one-of-a-kind singer and songwriter, one in possession of a
fearless and endlessly creative voice.