Gretchen Peters – Lyric Theatre, Belfast (live review)

…the crowd loved her version of “On A Bus To St. Cloud” but the next song of the set was even better – “Idlewild” from 2012’s Hello Cruel World. This opens with a child in the back seat of the family car listening to her parents’ fractured conversations, and it covers everything from racism and JFK’s assassination, to the Cold War. The finale was a rousing, rock-and-roll cover of Rodney Crowell’s “I Ain’t Living Long Like This” complete with a duel between lead guitar and keys.

I thought this was a fine and very uplifting end to the show, but Peters wasn’t finished. The band left and she walked to the very front of the Lyric’s stage with her guitar, and sang the simple and completely endearing “Love That Makes A Cup Of Tea”. This was a thing of absolute beauty and worth the ticket price on it’s own.

To read this review in its entirety, visit Gigging NI.