32 LANCASHIRE POST www.lep.co.uk Thursday, May 3, 2018 Thursday, May 3, 2018 www.lep.co.uk LANCASHIRE POST 41 Thursday, May 3, 2018 Thursday, May 3, 2018 32 lep.co.uk | facebook.com/lancashireeveningpost | @leponline lep.co.uk | facebook.com/lancashireeveningpost | @leponline THE BIG 41 In the midst of a INTERVIEW with world of darkness, MALCOLM WYATT Gretchen can now see the light... Gretchen Peters returns to the UK this month to mark the release of new LP, Dancing with the Beast. MALCOLM WYATT tracked down the Queen of Country Noir to Nashville, filling in the gaps since 2015 critical success, Blackbirds

retchen Peters knows That gave me a sense of confidence how to make you feel about what I’ve been doing these last at home in conversa- KEY ALBUMS 20 years, but you feel you’ve set the tion, in my case quickly bar and have to reach it every time. dispelling the implied The bar gets higher, you aim higher. Gglamour of her adopted hometown, “I felt I had a fire inside me from Nashville, suggesting it’s just like any The Secret of Life Burnt Toast & Offerings on – to do other city. better and better work, be more and “It’s looking a bit like England (1996) more honest and vulnerable in my today – grey and raining. A good day songwriting, dig deeper. I look back to get work done, though.” and it makes me a little dizzy – so The Tennessee state capital’s her much touring and work. But my hus- nerve centre, but we’re not talking 1 band said the way you get better is by Stetsons, cowboy boots or redneck doing it over and over, and there’s so country. Things have moved on. much wisdom in those words.” For me, it took Emmylou Harris’ Gretchen Peters I tell her I see production parallels Wrecking Ball LP to realise it didn’t between Emmylou’s work with Dan- have to be about that, the glamor- (2001) iel Lanois and hers with Doug Lancio. ous elder stateswoman of country “I knew he’d push me slightly past on form with guests like Neil Young, my comfort zone. He continues to, Steve Earle, and Lucinda Williams. 2 and I love working with him. I need Emmylou also had a profound ef- that. Doug never says, ‘Do this, do fect on Gretchen, a decade younger that.’ He’s more about creating a stage and still finding her feet at the time for magic to happen.” Gretchen Peters – storyteller supreme of that 1995 release, the following Burnt Toast & There’s a prime example on year recording debut LP, The Secret Lowlands, Gretchen railing against listen for characters, voices, titles, You suggested this album came After what happened in 2016 of Life, with contributions from Offerings (2007) President Trump’s USA. Is this her and the loudest voices in my head out of a difficult period in your life. Is Emmylou, Steve Earle, and the key- reminding the world about a more were these girls and women. But I’ve this music as therapy? board player she later married, Barry inclusive, progressive, welcoming been doing that back to Independ- “I think it is, but don’t really want I feel it’s not morally right Walsh. 3 America? ence Day (1994), probably further. to reduce it to therapy. I was tak- Yet while well-received, Gretchen “I feel strongly about trying to im- “I don’t really care to analyse it too ing a year off which didn’t turn out reckons her turning point came a part that message. People in the UK much, as there’s a little magic in that. anything like the year off I pictured to remain silent decade later, on 2007’s Burnt Toast & know he doesn’t represent all of us, or But those characters inspire me, cap- – restoration, rest, sitting in a lotus Live Offerings album. Raised in Boulder, Hello Cruel World even most of us, but after what hap- turing my imagination. What I’m al- position. Gretchen Peters’ 2018 Colorado, she moved to Nashville in (2012) pened in 2016 I feel it’s not morally ways trying to do is find the empathy “Instead, the election happened, the late ’80s, composing hits for Bry- right to remain silent. and commonality.” I lost my mum, then two very dear UK tour includes dates, GRETCHEN PETERS ON TRUMP an Adams, Neil Diamond, Etta James “I’m not a protest songwriter. As On Blackbirds, you covered David friends. It was an onslaught. I intend- supported by Kim and Shania Twain, among others, her a storyteller, the most effective thing Mead’s Nashville, celebrating your ed to not write anything, but halfway reputation slowly growing via high- 4 you can do is tell stories about peo- adopted hometown. This time, Argu- through 2017 I was bathing in grief. Richey, at Southport www.rncm.ac.uk/). profile covers, Gretchen finally being ple, the hardships they face and how ing With Ghosts (written with Mat- I thought, my way through this had The Atkinson (Saturday, To pre-order Dancing inducted into Nashville’s Songwriters they’re affected by this harsh and raca Berg and Ben Glover) is about always been to write, so dammit, I’m May 26, 01704 533 I thought, my way through Hall of Fame in 2014. Blackbirds brutal world we’re living in.” hardly recognising the place. gonna write!” with the Beast, visit The next year my Queen of Coun- Strong female characters are at “Matraca’s a Nashville native – And you end with a tribute to your 333, https://www. http://www.proper- try Noir (“I like that title. I may have (2015) the heart of this LP. Is Gretchen get- very rare here – and literally said, ‘I Mum, Love That Makes a Cup of Tea. this had always been to write. to steal that from you!”) won acclaim ting more radical as the years pass? get lost in my hometown.’ We looked “She gave me the title in a dream theatkinson.co.uk/) and records.co.uk/2018/03/ beyond the US with Blackbirds. And “They say you either get more at each other, knowing we had our – I had no idea what it’d mean to any- Manchester’s Royal new-release- now Dancing with the Beast proves radical or more conservative. I wasn’t opening line. It’s changing so rapidly. one else, but had to write it.” So. dammit, I’m going to write! that was no one-off. 5 so much radicalised as energised by “Driving a couple of days ago, we It’s a perfect finale – a little light Northern College of gretchen-peters- “That makes me feel so great on what happened in the election. As far got disoriented, turning around, not from darkness. Music (Sunday, May 27, a rainy day! After Blackbirds, it was as the women characters go, my recognising where we were, both “Well, on my albums, we need dancing-with-the- daunting to make another record. approach never really changed. I singing that line!” that!” 0161 907 5200, https:// beast/ ...AND ON A VERY TRAUMATIC YEAR