Heartwood Presents: Gretchen Peters

There’s a bittersweet beauty to the passing of time — the changes it brings are just as often heartbreaking as they are heartwarming. The inevitable tension that arises from that sway is Gretchen Peters’ most trusted muse. “The years go by like days. Sometimes the days go by like years. And I don’t know which one I hate the most,” she sings in “Arguing with Ghosts,” the hauntingly wistful opening cut on her new album, Dancing with the Beast.

Beauty tempered by dread, sorrow buoyed by hope, these are the ever-present tugs of war that make life worth living and songs worth writing. And they are the over-riding themes that make Gretchen Peters one of her generation’s most compelling singer/songwriters.

“…songs that manage, with deft use of language, to cram a whole epic into three minutes. It’s astonishingly good writing.” – Pop Matters

“Peters’ ability to give voice to believable characters is unbeatable.” – The Mirror (UK)

“Today’s most vivid, detailed songwriter. She is uncanny at transforming simple thoughts or images into song.” – Glide Magazine