Many singer-songwriters often say, "I could never write songs for other people," and look at someone with so much commercial success like Gretchen Peters and presume that this must be her primary focus. In truth, Gretchen has always written for herself and any success that came from her writing she considers a happy accident.
She's had a lot of happy accidents. With songs from her catalog covered by the likes of Martina McBride, Etta James, Bryan Adams, the Neville Brothers and Trisha Yearwood it's hard to believe there is any accident here. But when you look at the diversity of these artists, you come to realize, that it's impossible for there to be a formula at work here. Gretchen just writes amazing songs that everyone wants to play.
In this hour-long interview she talks about some of this commercial success, but more importantly she talks about what inspires her, what motivates her to keep working in an industry that she is admittedly not very fond of and why she set out to be a songwriter.
This podcast also include three live performances from Gretchen and her long-time piano player Barry Walsh.