Gretchen Peters is an American singer and songwriter. She was born in New York and raised in Boulder, Colorado, but moved to Nashville in the late 1980's. She found work as a songwriter, composing hits for Martina McBride, Etta James, Trisha Yearwood, Patty Loveless, George Strait, Anne Murray, Shania Twain, Neil Diamond and co-writing songs with Bryan Adams.
In addition, Peters has released seven studio albums of her own. The title track of her 1996 debut album The Secret of Life was later recorded by Faith Hill in 1999.
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.
Between the melody and the melancholy, the song sets the tone for all that is to come after and lifts the album over the high artistic bar set by her last outing, 2015’s award-winning Blackbirds.
Artist Quotes: Gretchen Peters is a songwriters writer - the kind of inspiring artist and writer we strive to be like and one we use as a measuring stick for our own work. -Brandy Clark
Beautiful, brave and poetic, "The Matador" literally inspires me to tears. Hand over my heart. Rodney Crowell
This is seasoned writing - full of a woman' s heart and soul - and short stories brought into song length. Full of beauty and real life from a grand voice... beautiful. -Darrell Scott
The songs are timeless and true, and her mastery of melody and language is profound. It's an amazing and beautiful work of art, and people need to hear it. -Mary Gauthier