Gretchen Peters 2/6/2018

Gretchen is rapidly becoming an all time favourite - her albums and gigs get better and better. This is true for the latest album which can stand with the amazing 'Blackbirds' album and for this latest tour. First off was Kim Richey as support act - she was an alt-country singer songwriter who's been around a while although I can't say I have heard her before. It was a good set of her songs and she finished off with a Kris Kristofferson cover. Gretchen came on with hubby Barry Walsh on piano and accordion and two guitarists from Ulster, Conor McCreanor on bass and lead guitarist Colm McLean. The gig just kicked off in top gear and went from there. She started with the opening couple of tracks of the new album, 'Arguing with Ghosts' and 'Wichita' and then hit 'The Matador' (from Hello Cruel World) and 'Blackbirds'. Then a slew of tracks from the new album and 'Say Grace' was amazingly powerful and 'Dancing with the Beast' ditto. And then possibly the best song on the album 'Disappearing Act'. The next four songs were Gretchen Classics the last two being the phenomenal 'Five Minutes' and the superb'Idlewild'. The band were tight and very musical with Colm's lead guitar ( a great sounding gold guitar with some sort of soundbox and a D style of logo) and Barry's piano and accordion in perfect harmony. Kim Richey ahd come on as well starting with 'Say Grace' to add backing vocals and the whole thing was just humming along. I love Gretchen's singing but it is the songwriting that makes the gig special. For an encore the band decided to 'have some fun' which was provided by the uptempo 'Why you been gone so Long' with Barry and Colm trading breaks for some time. The band went off and then Gretchen unplugged, came down into the front row, stood next to me apologised in advance in case she might spray me and sang a beautiful acoustic 'Love that makes a Cup of Tea'. I don't know whether the back of the balcony could hear it OK but I don't really care. Wow.