Without too much media attention, singer / songwriter Gretchen Peters (New York 1957) also manages to attract music lovers in the Netherlands. Peters worked for years in Nashville as a songwriter for Faith Hill, Trisha Yearwood and Neil Diamond, among others. From 1996 she also released albums under her own name, of which her previous album (Hello Cruel World, 2012) sold the best. Death haunts her
… latest album Blackbirds. "When I went to three funerals and one wedding in a week, I became aware of my own mortality." Few singers approach the subject, which seems like a taboo for female singers, with so much openness. On Blackbirds Peters shows sympathy for the scribbles and succulents. She sings a song from the point of view of a veteran and in The Cure For The Pain she is in the shoes of a hospital patient. She does this with a penetrating voice and beautifully arranged roots songs in which her long experience as a songwriter resonates. (PdK)more
