Gretchen Peters 17/3/2015

This tour was to promote the new album 'Blackbirds', which had passed me by until the morning of the gig. A quick listen told me I was going to enjoy the gig a lot and so it was as Gretschen played pretty much all of this powerful album and also a few tracks from her back catalogue including the pick of tracks from 'Hello Cruel World' such as the haunting 'Idlewild' the elegaic 'Five Minutes' and the punchy 'Woman on the Wheel'. The band was the trio from the last tour (hubby Barry Walsh on piano, Christine Bougie on various)with the addition of Connor McCreanor on electric and upright bass. Christine Bougie really impressed this time playing some lovely pedal steel and lots of gentle but spot on drumming and picking up an electric guitar from time to time. She played an exquisite understated solo on guitar in the encore which really hit home and I realised it was all about her timing. The gig kicked off with tracks from the new album, the title track and then 'When all you've got is a hammer'. Included in the first set was a piano piece from Barry 'October Waltz. The first half finished with the perhaps the two most haunting songs on the new album 'The cure for the pain is the pain' and the poignant 'Everything Falls Away'. It was very moving music. After a break Gretschen started on solo piano for a couple of songs, 'Jubilee' another cracking song from the new album and then her old standard 'Independence Day'. After that the gig hit some high spots with 'Idlewild' and 'Five Minutes' and a great rendition of 'The Matador' and a superb 'Women on the Wheel' before a final encore of a slightly jaunty John Prine song about marriage 'In Spite'. I liked her last tour but this gig exceeded even my high expectations as has the new album. I am not sure why she isn't playing bigger venues.