OXFORD: St John the Evangelist

WED 26TH JUN, 2013 7.30 pm

Coming on the heels of her successful 2012 release ‘Hello Cruel World’, and an 11-month tour to promote the album, Gretchen Peters is back on the road in 2013 on her "Woman On The Wheel" tour. 2012 was a landmark year for the Grammy nominated singer-songwriter from Nashville: she appeared at the prestigious Isle Of Wight and Cambridge Folk Festivals (also appearing at the latter as special guest to John Prine), and she supported Prine, as well as country and folk legends Guy Clark and Arlo Guthrie at additional shows in the US.

‘Hello Cruel World’ was a Top 5 Americana album in the US, while holding down the Number One spot on the Euro Americana chart for an entire month; the title track held a spot on BBC Radio 2's B playlist for an unprecedented seven weeks.

Her own peers may be her biggest fans, though; Rodney Crowell (her duet partner on "Dark Angel") calls ‘Hello Cruel World’ "beautiful, brave and poetic", while her "Saint Francis" cowriter, Tom Russell, calls it "the best record I’ve heard in many, many years." Peters calls ‘Hello Cruel World’ her “most close-to-the-bone work, written at a time when I felt absolutely fearless about telling the truth.” She keeps the accent on beauty throughout this, her ninth disc, with both her poetic language and the spare, evocative sounds she created supporting her organic story telling. Of her sold out live London show, the Financial Times said, "Peters specialises in tales of regret and loss, sung with great clarity."