Writing about “the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to” is hardly new. Shakespeare was doing it more than 400 years ago.
But creating a 21st-century album that is still able to deal in an original and touching way with the big and interesting subjects of love and death is a trick that many folk and country musicians try to pull off and few achieve, especially in the impressive way that Gretchen Peters does with her 2015 album Blackbirds.
It’s easy to see why Peters was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall Of Fame last year, because she is a writer of real depth.
5/5 stars
To read this review in its entirety, view it at the Telegraph website.