Gretchen Peters-SFAWN
 

http://gretchenpeters.com/index.php?...=507&Itemid=48

Gretchen Peters has a XMAS album out with Song For A Winters Night on it. Link above has more details about the CD and her bio. She's a Grammy award winner for songwriting.

Gretchen willl be performing the entire Northern Lights album live from 3rd & Lindley on Nashville's WRLT Lightning 100 on Sunday, December 21 at 8PM.
radio website: http://www.lightning100.com/

LA Times review:
Gretchen Peters, “Northern Lights” (Scarlet Letter): Nashville songwriter par excellence Peters homes hones in on the melancholy side of the holidays with intimacy and insight in her savvy mix of standards (“Silent Night,” Vince Guaraldi and Lee Mendelson’s “Christmas Time Is Here”), less-traveled seasonal songs (Gordon Lightfoot’s “Song Ffor a Winter’s Night,” the traditional “I Wonder As I Wander”) and fitting new songs of her own (“December Child,” “Waitin’ on Mary,” the title tune). For those who won’t trade musical acumen for holiday spirit. 3 stars

another review:
Having just finished a big stack of holiday music reviews, I was in the mood for something different. I've been fortunate to see so many high quality releases this fall; still, the music sometimes just begins to sound the same, and I was hankering for something fresh and creatively cool.

Gretchen Peters is oh-so-creatively-cool. Grammy-nominated Peters has a hybrid voice, marrying virginal angels with whiskey and cigarettes. Priceless! She opens with Gordon Lightfoot's Song for a Winter's Night, complete with harmonica flourishes. By the time the first track ended, I was hooked, and I knew that the rest of Northern Lights would be a blast. It is!

Coventry Carol, with its old-time-radio intro, is a careful, calculating, contemplative--and very melancholy--affair. The a cappella verse near the end is particularly affecting. I Wonder as I Wander is more exuberant, exuding a bluesy Appalachian feel. Peters includes several original numbers, including the delicate title track, which conveys the mysterious beauty associated with the northern lights. Peters also includes an achingly lovely In the Bleak Midwinter, one of the nicest versions I have ever heard.

So there you have it! I enjoyed Gretchen Peters' Northern Lights very, very much. She's a folksy phenom, and this CD will thrill those who favor alternative-country-folk music that showcases a killer voice. Absolutely excellent!

--Carol Swanson
Christmasreviews.com

another:
Winter nights are a prominent theme in this 12-cut collection from Gretchen Peters, with assistance from longtime collaborator Barry Walsh. Listeners will be spellbound by each different mood expressed: the loneliness of Gordon Lightfoot's "Song for a Winter's Night," the shared special moments of life's mysteries in Peters' own "Northern Lights," and the solitude felt during a gentle late-night snowstorm in "Careful How You Go," by Will Kimbrough and Kim Richey. The traditional "Silent Night" is so calming and peaceful, it seems like the cello itself is softly snoring.

"(Charlie's) Angels" mixes "Angels We Have Heard on High" with Vince Guaraldi's "Skating," and the result is a heavenly chorus that replaces the classical arpeggios of the "Gloria" chorus with cool shades, finger-snaps, and swaying movements that echo the swirly, dancing snowflakes of the piano. Just delightful! Peters adds two other compositions: "December Child" captures the wonder of the Christmas miracle, and "Waiting On Mary," more of an Advent song than a Christmas one, expresses a hopeful expectancy shared by the actors of that first Christmas night and modern believers.

This release is a masterful blend of secular and religious songs, traditional and contemporary sounds, introspective and celebratory moments. Part of the proceeds from sales of this release will benefit Room in the Inn, a Nashville cold-weather shelter program for the homeless.
-Susan Hartman (Baltimore, MD)


BIO: http://gretchenpeters.com/index.php?...ask=view&id=15

Talking about the Northern Lights CD -
http://gretchenpeters.com/index.php?...=504&Itemid=46

Very impressive list of her songs and performers who have covered them: (Bryan Adams, Patty Loveless, Martina MCBride, Anne Murray, George Jones, Neil Diamond, Suzy Bogguss,Patricia Conroy, Faith Hill , Trisha Yearwood, Don Henley, George Strait, etc..)
http://gretchenpeters.com/index.php?...d=53&Itemid=99
http://gretchenpeters.com/index.php?...d=53&Itemid=99

youtube:http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...eters+-&page=1
www.myspace.com/gretchenpeters