2016 30A Songwriters Festival: Gretchen Peters
For two decades, Gretchen Peters has been one of Nashville’s most beloved and respected artists. Peters was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in October 2014 by singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell, who called her “both a songwriter and a poet (who) sings as beautifully as she writes.” Her 2015 album, ‘Blackbirds’, debuted at #1 on the UK Country chart and in the top 40 UK pop chart, and was awarded International Album of the Year and Song of the Year at the UK Americana awards in February 2016. In 2015, The Telegraph named her one of the best 60 female singer-songwriters of all time.
Peters didn’t set out to write an album centered on death and mortality, but the songs on ‘Blackbirds’ told her that’s where they needed to go. It was a time in her life when she noticed the ratio of weddings to funerals shift from gaining to loss. Peters performed songs from her the album and talked about the songwriting process when she visited Folk Alley at Florida’s 30A Songwriters Festival. Check out our interview and watch video performances of selected songs.
