Customer Reviews

Burnt Toast & Offerings

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Gretchen has always been one of our best songwriters. Lucky that she's also been the most affecting interpreter of her own compositions. BURNT TOAST AND OFFERINGS adds another masterful collection of gorgeous, smart songs to her impressive catalog. She sounds like no one else. She writes like no one else. She's effusive with words yet spare in delivering them. The palette of instruments is exquisite: her and Doug Lancio's great guitars, subtle and moving use of strings, and thrilling appearances of an accordion, a concertina and a pennywhistle. But the heart, the joy and the tears start with her words--sung so poignantly with lots of quiet spaces between them for the listener to contemplate.

from "The Way You Move Me:"

YOU LEFT YOUR WORDS
ALL ACROSS MY MEMORY
YOU LEFT YOUR MARK
LIKE A BURNING BRAND
YOU LEFT YOUR FINGERPRINTS
ALL OVER ME
AND NOW YOU'RE EVERYWHERE I AM

IF I CRIED A THOUSAND TEARS
IF I LIVED A THOUSAND YEARS
I COULD NEVER FIND A WAY TO MAKE YOU SEE
I'LL NEVER UNDERSTAND THE WAY YOU MOVE ME

from "This Town:"

THIS TOWN IS A LOT LIKE ME
SADDER AND WISER THAN IT USED TO BE
A LITTLE SPRAWLED OUT, A LITTLE RUN DOWN
I WONDER WHAT'S GONNA BECOME OF THIS TOWN

ALL I WANNA DO TONIGHT IS KISS YOU IN THE STREET
SWAYING TO THE BEAT OF A RUSTY RADIO
ALL I WANNA DO IS FEEL YOUR ARMS AROUND ME TOO
PULLIN ON MY BODY LIKE AN UNDERTOW

THIS TOWN IS A LOT LIKE ME
A LITTLE COAT OF PAINT AND SOME TLC
AND SHE'LL LIGHT RIGHT UP IF YOU COME AROUND
YOU KNOW THAT YOU NEVER WANNA LEAVE THIS TOWN

BURNT TOAST AND OFFERINGS is filled with moments like these. Songwriting and the singer delivering the song don't get much better than this.

Gretchen Peters is the master songwriter who wrote "Circus Girl", so of course I purchased her newest album "Burnt Toast & Offerings". Since then it has seldom been out of my CD player. This album is simply fantastic. Peters writes catchy music and poetic lyrics that rhyme. The arrangements are varied and interesting, and the musicianship is first rate. She writes about personal subjects, both life changing and the mundane stuff of daily life. She is a fine interpreter of her own work, and has assembled a group of other great musicians for this project. She can write in various styles, and this album includes up-tempo pop, torchy blues, twangy guitar blues and a minor key heart breaker. There are no weak cuts on this album, but these are my favorites:

Sunday Morning: A happy singable song with great lyrics about it being Sunday.
There's a Sunday paper, and a sleepy neighbor,
And a cat curled at your feet.
There's breakfast frying, and a baby crying,
And your smile is all I need.

One for My Baby: A torchy 3AM-in-the-bar song with piano accompaniment to die for.

England Blues: Up tempo twangy guitar blues plus more great lyrics.
Holed up in a hotel room on the river Tyne.
Just me and my baby and a "Do Not Disturb" sign.
Twenty-four hours by the hotel clock
Hotel maid going knock knock.

Breakfast at Our House: Devastating song about a marriage without love.
Burnt toast and offerings,
That's what the morning brings.
Breakfast at our house.

This Town: A catchy happy song with longing. Great arrangement includes a pennywhistle.

I am an adult (OK, an older adult) who doesn't listen to oldies. Instead I search magazine reviews and the Internet to find good recently published music. And when I find an album like this I remember why. Some artists can make it all happen; the music, the lyrics, the musicians, the production. And then they make a work of sound-art that has the power to communicate emotion directly to the listener's heart. Thanks Gretchen!

i've loved Gretchen Peters for a long time. Apparently, this album was released last year and I didn't know until now. Why didn't anyone tell me sooner? I also didn't learn about "Halcyon" until about two years after it was released. I guess it shows how underappreciated she is as a performer. Many of her songs have been succesfully covered by other artists, but Peters's own recordings are just as good. Her voice is less polished, more fragile, than many of the others (Faith Hill, Martina McBride, Patty Loveless), but full of emotion and fits her songs perfectly. And the production is perfect.

Like "Halcyon", "Burnt Toast & Offerings" consists of mostly slow tempo songs. While "The Secret of Life" was immediately catchy, "Burnt Toast & Offerings" is meditative rather than catchy, and grows with repeated listenings. Still, there are up-tempo songs to be found here as well, such as "England Blues", and "This Town". This song alone is worth the price of the album.

I still like "Halcyon" better, but "Burnt Toast & Offerings" is another great album from one of our time's greatest songwriters. I don't want to miss her next one.

Gretchen Peters has recorded three previous studio CDs + a live disc. "Burnt Toast & Offerings" is an amazing 5th disc. With no poor tracks on the disc, four cuts make me hit the repeat button. "Sunday Morning (Up & Down My Street)" is a lovely upbeat midtempo track that has Peters' lovely vocals on a joyful moment on the disc, "And we're talking & we're laughing & we're taking time & making love so sweet." The glockenspiel by Barry Walsh gives the arrangement a lighthearted feel. "Thirsty" smokes like last call at the blues bar, "What makes you look right through me? What demons from your past? What are you looking for inside that whiskey glass? ...You're always thirsty and you're never satisfied." Jim Hoke's clarinet makes me think New Orleans. "This Town" is a catchy classic Peters' tune with her voice part longing, part ecstasy, "All I wanna do tonight is kiss you in the street, swaying to the beat of a rusty radio." The set ends with the classic "To Say Goodbye" that has such a strong mixture of the sweetness of the past tasted with loss and lament. Peters' vocals ooze strength and vulnerability, "We are dreamers slowly waking; We are shooting stars across a midnight sky; We are strangers in the making, but we're not ready to say goodbye." Other tracks like the emotional opener "Ghost," the rocking "England Blues" & the Harold Arlen & Johnny Mercer cover of "One for My Baby" are stellar. This diamond-studded set grows deeper with repeated listenings. Bravo!

It has been a long time since Ms. Peters has graced us with a new studio album, and I absolutely love this new showcase of her very soul-searching and sensitive music. She visits every type of music on this disc, and each and every song is a keeper. This disc goes with me wherever I go; it's that good. I was privileged to meet Ms. Peters in 1996, in a setting of about 20 people, and was able to talk with her and hear her sing. Her songs have a lasting quality......Buy this disc,(and her other ones) and you will never tire of the beautiful melodies and wonderful vocal styling.

Gretchen has always been one of our best songwriters. Lucky that she's also been the most affecting interpreter of her own compositions. BURNT TOAST AND OFFERINGS adds another masterful collection of gorgeous, smart songs to her impressive catalog. She sounds like no one else. She writes like no one else. She's effusive with words yet spare in delivering them. The palette of instruments is exquisite: her and Doug Lancio's great guitars, subtle and moving use of strings, and thrilling appearances of an accordion, a concertina and a pennywhistle. But the heart, the joy and the tears start with her words--sung so poignantly with lots of quiet spaces between them for the listener to contemplate.

from "The Way You Move Me:"

YOU LEFT YOUR WORDS
ALL ACROSS MY MEMORY
YOU LEFT YOUR MARK
LIKE A BURNING BRAND
YOU LEFT YOUR FINGERPRINTS
ALL OVER ME
AND NOW YOU'RE EVERYWHERE I AM

IF I CRIED A THOUSAND TEARS
IF I LIVED A THOUSAND YEARS
I COULD NEVER FIND A WAY TO MAKE YOU SEE
I'LL NEVER UNDERSTAND THE WAY YOU MOVE ME

from "This Town:"

THIS TOWN IS A LOT LIKE ME
SADDER AND WISER THAN IT USED TO BE
A LITTLE SPRAWLED OUT, A LITTLE RUN DOWN
I WONDER WHAT'S GONNA BECOME OF THIS TOWN

ALL I WANNA DO TONIGHT IS KISS YOU IN THE STREET
SWAYING TO THE BEAT OF A RUSTY RADIO
ALL I WANNA DO IS FEEL YOUR ARMS AROUND ME TOO
PULLIN ON MY BODY LIKE AN UNDERTOW

THIS TOWN IS A LOT LIKE ME
A LITTLE COAT OF PAINT AND SOME TLC
AND SHE'LL LIGHT RIGHT UP IF YOU COME AROUND
YOU KNOW THAT YOU NEVER WANNA LEAVE THIS TOWN

BURNT TOAST AND OFFERINGS is filled with moments like these. Songwriting and the singer delivering the song don't get much better than this.

This was a surprisingly disappointing CD from a songwriter who has delivered some classics (eg On A Bus To St Cloud; Secret Of Life). Pass on this and buy her best of CD released in 2009 - it's a much stronger set of songs.