New album from the writer of Martina McBride's "Independence Day" — Country Music Association Song Of The Year award winner

Gretchen Peters was born in New York and raised in Boulder, Colorado, but moved to Nashville in the late 1980s. There, she found work as a songwriter, composing hits for Martina McBride, Etta James, Trisha Yearwood, Patty Loveless, George Strait, as well as for rock singers Neil Diamond and co-writing songs with Bryan Adams. She also won the Country Music Association Song Of The Year award for McBride's "Independence Day" in 1995.

The title of Gretchen Peters' new Hello Cruel World is a pun on the famed exit line — a joke that, like the lovely melodies and deliciously textured arrangements framing these 11 songs — sweetens this captivating music spun from a year of turmoil. The Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter from Nashville calls Hello Cruel World her "most close-to-the-bone work, written at a time when I felt absolutely fearless about telling the truth." Peters and her guest Rodney Crowell sing, "life is still a beautiful disaster," on "Dark Angel." But Peters keeps the accent on the "beautiful" throughout her ninth disc, with both her poetic language and the spare, evocative sounds she created in the studio to support her organic story-telling.

Although it might have taken Gretchen a few albums work to shine in the spotlight, her time is undoubtedly now, with Hello Cruel World arguably her strongest work to date. There's plenty for fans of Nanci Griffith, Bonnie Raitt, Kathleen Edwards and Lucinda Williams to enjoy here.

Track Listing
Hello Cruel World
Saint Francis
The Matador
Dark Angel (with Rodney Crowell)
Paradise Found
Woman On The Wheel
Five Minutes
Camille
Natural Disaster
Idlewild
Little World