“Crash on the levee, mama
Water’s gonna overflow
Swamps gonna rise
And no boats gonna row”
-Bob Dylan, “Down In The Flood

It’s been a rather eventful weekend in Nashville. The worst flood in the city’s history, 15 inches of rain in two days, cars under 10 feet of water, carp swimming down city streets, buildings floating down highways. It’s creepily reminiscent of the final scene from one of my favorite movies, Magnolia, where frogs rain down from the sky. At this point, frogs wouldn’t surprise me a bit. There have been flood stories, both heartbreaking and hilarious, flood parties (we spent Saturday night in a neighbor’s photography studio listening to a great bluegrass band while outside the thunder and lightning was rattling the roof), and lots of “are you OK?” emails and phone calls, both incoming and outgoing. And now the sun is out, the birds are singing, life goes on, and we come away with a few new leaks, some hair-raising stories, and a new sense of gratitude for life, limb and friends. Others have not been so lucky, so if you are inclined, please donate to the relief effort at Middle Tennessee Red Cross.

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Without A Net

Barring more floods, tornadoes or volcanic ash, we’ll be arriving in the UK in just over a week to kick off the “Circus Girl – Without A Net” tour. Your song requests and associated memories and anecdotes have been pouring in and they have been wonderful to read. A lot of preparation has gone into this particular venture; remembering, re-learning and sometimes re-working over 20 years worth of songs is a challenge. Some of them I’ve played pretty much constantly over the years, some of them I barely recalled. Along the way I’ve fallen back in love with a few old ones that somehow fell through the cracks. Those will most likely stay in the set list after the tour is a memory.

If you have yet to put in a request, there’s still time: you can send me a message via my website, Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. Or if you prefer you can just email me. Please remember to specify the particular show (venue, date and city) that you will be attending, and give us your name, and any other information you’d like to share – where you’re from, how long you’ve been a fan, a personal anecdote, dedication, reminiscence or just your thoughts on the song you want to hear most. Tour dates are listed on the Tour page at gretchenpeters.com. See you there!

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Circus Girl: The Best Of

The 2-CD numbered, Limited Edition of Circus Girl: The Best Of Gretchen Peters is almost gone, but we have just received a shipment of the single CD version, which makes a great gift for the uninitiated! For now, both versions of Circus Girl are available at the Store.

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Tom Russell + more tour dates

On June 17th I’ll be playing a double bill with my friend and frequent collaborator Tom Russell. We’ll be at 3rd & Lindsley in Nashville, TN, joined by Barry Walsh and Thad Beckman. Tom’s newest album “Blood and Candle Smoke” is a tour de force and appeared on all the critics’ year-end lists. This is the only co-bill with Tom booked for 2010 so if you want to hear “Ash Wednesday” and the duets from “One To The Heart, One To The Head” make plans to be there!

We’ve also added a short run to the Washington DC area in June: we’ll be doing the Widerman House Concert on June 5th in Ijamsville, MD, followed by a return to the Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton, VA on June 6th. If you’re in the DC area come see us!

More US dates coming soon, keep checking back.

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Festival time

We’ll be back in the UK in July for both the Trowbridge Village Pump Festival (22-25 July) and the 2010 Cambridge Folk Festival (29 July – 1 August). You can see the full lineup for both festivals at the Cambridge Festival site and the Trowbridge Festival site. Specific stages and times will be announced soon here.

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Download of the Month

This month’s download is a recently unearthed demo of “Hey Baby”, a song I wrote with my friend Bryan Adams. The track was recorded in Bryan’s studio in Vancouver, Canada late in the evening after we had finished writing the song. It felt like a duet to us, so we sang it that way. Enjoy.

x

Gretchen