Gretchen Peters readily admits to her dark side in her songwriting. It's even reflected in her merchandise with a whole line of merch bearing the phrase "Sad songs make me happy." But, despite her efforts, there's a lot of hope in her songs, too.
"A hundred percent darkness, nobody would want to hear that. It's the tension between hope and darkness that's interesting and emotionally pulls people in," she muses. "But I am drawn to dark subjects because it's more interesting territory. I'm really drawn to stories about characters who are fighting their way out of desperate situations. I think the act of fighting a way out, the idea that people who are relatively powerless can find power and use it, is rather hopeful."
FAQ
Gretchen Peters
WHEN — 7:30 p.m. March 6
WHERE — AAC Live! in Fort Smith
COST — $40
INFO — artistaudiencecommu…
AND
WHEN — 7:30 p.m. March 7
WHERE — Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville
COST — $30
INFO — 443-5600, waltonartscenter.org, gretchenpeters.com
Though she traverses those bleak spaces with her characters night after night, the Nashville songwriter admits digging into those scary topics is cathartic. Peters reveals the sense of community she feels from her songs -- the camaraderie of knowing someone else relates to the emotions she's working through on stage is reassuring.
"I think when I was starting out, I was trying to give answers in my songs," she says. "And as I got wiser and older, I realized the more interesting things are questions, that things don't have to be tied up with a bow. In fact, they shouldn't. And the corollary to that is I was really trying to go for beauty early on. I think I shifted at some point to going for truth, for really brutal truth sometimes. My writing, for me, really turned a corner when I decided, and it was a very conscious decision, to get over my fear of being completely, nakedly honest."
Now with seven studio albums out in the world -- the most recent released in May -- a couple Grammy nominations and her induction to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, Peters is sharing that experience in leading writing workshops. The great surprise of her career, she says, has come in the form of sharing her journey with other writers in the hope that it helps in their own work.
"I was sort of adamant in the belief that you can't teach writing, which, I sort of still believe, but I think you can illuminate the process a lot," Peters offers. "I remember thinking, 'If I don't start writing the things that I think at 4 in the morning, then I'm just not telling the truth. I'm wasting everybody's time.' That was a turning point, and I talk to my students about that. Really telling the truth, and being honest about it, it's completely terrifying. But it's also incredibly powerful. And that was the key I turned that unlocked the next level for my writing."
That evolution is further demonstrated by the press reception of her latest album "Dancing with the Beast." The Associated Press said: "This is not jukebox music -- the stuff that exists to fill in the pauses in conversation. This IS the conversation," and Thom Jurek at AllMusic.com noted that Peters' writing is "expertly and sincerely free of cliches or false romantic notions about any subject it addresses, its large spiritual truths are revealed in the only way they matter: small, intimate experiences."
"I think the power of a song that's well written," Peters reflects, "and they're not all well written, they don't all survive -- but if it is, it's sturdy enough to survive hundreds and hundreds of singings and the song keeps evolving, you keep finding new things in it. I evolve through the experience, myself. And those are rare songs."
NAN What's Up on 03/01/2019