…Each of the eleven songs represents the voice of a different woman, with different life experiences, and at different ages. There is the lonely widow on ‘Arguing with Ghosts’, there’s the abused young girl in ‘Wichita’, the woman who lives as a ‘Truckstop Angel’. There is murder and revenge, loss, grief and heartache.

In the overheard interview, Gretchen Peters said that this wasn’t her original concept for the album. The death of her mother last year and the American election result in 2016, however, put these characters and their voices in her head. They are women’s voices, but they are songs that speak to humanity. She makes it clear that she isn’t a protest singer, but, while not being overtly political, the environment that surrounds the songs is political with both Trump’s presidency and all it represents and the #metoo campaign in the news. She described the political situation as an “empathy crisis” and these songs are about opening the “empathy channels”, giving people who don’t normally get heard a voice.

To read this review in its entirety, visit Pennyblack Music.