A smile crossed Gretchen Peters’ face as she pondered what might be the theme of her latest album.

“I’ve joked about this,” she began. “But I made a record called Burnt Toast & Offerings in 2007, which I call my divorce record. The next studio album I made after that was Hello Cruel World, which I call my existential crisis record. And my new one, Blackbird, is about mortality.”

Her smile broadened as she came to the punch line. “So there is a progression there. The joke, of course, what am I going to do next? You get to death and you’re pretty much done!”

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