One To The Heart, One To The Head

Gretchen Peters | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 1, 2009)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Scarlet Letter Records/Frontera Records
• ASIN: B001S1IPRK
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #49,455 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Peters is an intuitive singer whose lovely voice projects warmth and sincerity. Russell is her deep-toned counterpart. Together, they convey the truths of each lyric with subtle artistry. The setting is the West, old and new, but the songs are less about place than freedom and faith, vulnerability and love. They range from Mary McCaslin's "Prairie in the Sky," to Townes Van Zandt's "Snowin' on Raton" and the traditional favorite, "I Ride an Old Paint." From the songs to the singers, arrangements and players, Peters and Russell have crafted an album as interesting as it is entertaining -- an early candidate for album of the year." --Raleigh, NC News & Observer

Two talented songwriters lay their pens down for a cover album that's one of the best folk records in recent memory. Gretchen Peters with Tom Russell One to the Heart, One to the Head (Scarlet Letter/Frontera) You may have never heard of Gretchen Peters, but if you ve flipped on a country radio station sometime in the past decade, you ve surely heard her work. In addition to writing Independence Day , the song that catapulted Martina McBride into country superstardom, Peters has also written for Patty Loveless, George Strait and numerous other Nashville giants. In addition to this day job, Peters has a singing career of her own, releasing seven solo-folk/country albums over the past 13 years. But before moving to Nashville in the late 1980s, Peters lived in Boulder, Colorado; it seems even after all these years, Peters mind and heart is still set on her old stomping grounds. On One to the Heart, One to the Head, she turns her gaze back to the American West with a collection of songs celebrating its land, its mythology and its inhabitants. Texas country singer Tom Russell joins her on the journey. Russell, no songwriting slouch himself, has been recorded by Johnny Cash, Dave Alvin and Nanci Griffith, to name just a few. Their two voices Peters pure-and-clear soprano, Russell s whiskey-soaked rasp somehow manage to mesh wonderfully, creating a sound as raw and beautiful as a desert landscape, and the songs they ve chosen for the album bring to mind Marty Robbins, John Steinbeck and the cowboy songs collected by John Lomax. Largely a cover album, One to the Heart, One to the Head has only two original songs on the record (one penned by Russell and an instrumental track composed by Barry Walsh). However, it manages to sound like an album full of new material, thanks to the fresh take Peters and Russell have on the songs. The supporting musicians, including accordionist Joel Guzman and Walsh, former keyboardist for Waylon Jennings, create an atmosphere so lifelike it almost seems like you re listening to them performing in some dusty New Mexico cantina. Though the material Peters and Russell chose for this project ranges from Bob Dylan ("Billy 4") to Townes Van Zandt ("Snowin on Raton") to Mary McCaslin ("Prairie in the Sky") to Bonnie Raitt ("Sweet and Shiny Eyes"), surprisingly, the best song on the album is their version of Tom Dundee s These Cowboys Born Out of Their Time . Its been recorded by various folkies through the years, but Peters and Russell deliver the best version by far. The song itself epitomizes the theme of the entire album, thanks to lyrics such as, The range has been settled for years now / The old wranglers passed on with their kind / But every now and again, you run into these men / These cowboys born out of their time. It s simultaneously a stunning eulogy to a lost world and a tribute to those modern-day men struggling to hold on to a past rapidly becoming obsolete. The frontier may be long dead, but Peters and Russell sure do an excellent job of making it come alive again, however briefly, in song. - Juli Thanki, PopMatters --PopMatters

"The title, One To The Heart, One To The Head, could suggest, among a plethora of metaphors, a duet of beautiful deadly blows. A double-shot of love, or something other. A one-two punch. A brace of kisses. The virtue of mercy, twice-blessed. Whatever way you cut it or call it, we're talking Gretchen Peters' and Tom Russell's soulful cowboy-music universe paralleling the musical universes of, say, Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, of Emmylou Harris and Mark Knopfler. Beyond the prowess of the vocals, however, and beyond the virtuosity--especially the keyboard artistry of Barry Walsh flashing us back like glass-plate sepia-toned photographs of piano-men sitting 16-hands-tall aboard opera house stages of the horseback 1800s--and beyond the top-shelf production work in the studio--beyond all the tangible radiant facets of this gem of a record--shines Gretchen Peters' genuine love for the emotional landscape, solace to chaos, of our contemporary West and the songs that keep it honest." - Paul Zarzyski, poet, spoken word artist and recipient of the 2005 Montana Governor s Arts Award For Literature --Paul Zarzyski

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Love Song to the American West, May 9, 2009

By 

Simon H Turner (Maplewood, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: One To The Heart, One To The Head (Audio CD)

This collaboration between two gifted songwriters started with Russell's prescient notion that Peters, one of Nashville's most successful writers, should reconnect artistically with the West where she grew up. What they've created together, in a CD comprised largely of other people's songs, is a remarkable achievement - at once stunningly beautiful and emotionally deeply satisfying.

To begin with, this is not a predictable retread of Western themes, nor does it inhabit a consistent landscape of time and place. Rather, the West evoked here is a place of loss and longing, of myth and legend, and of memories faded by time. It's a complex vision, brought to life by an inspired selection of songs.

It's no great surprise that songwriters of Russell's and Peters' caliber would pick interesting songs; what's less predictable is how completely they inhabit their selections, making each song their own, and - even when familiar - providing interpretations that are fresh and unexpected, as with Townes Van Zandt's "Snowin' on Raton," and Dylan's "Billy 4" from the "Pat Garrett" soundtrack.

The real revelations however are in the less familiar songs. Mary McCaslin's gorgeous "Prairie in the Sky" which opens the set, and Jennifer Warnes' haunting "Prairie Melancholy" which closes it, stake out the emotional territory that will be explored. Tom Dundee's "Cowboys Born Out of Their Time" is another high point - a lament for a way of life now passed, but as with a number of these songs, also an unexpected perspective on a familiar topic. And Stephanie Davis's "Wolves" is simply chilling.

Other than Barry Walsh's opening instrumental and the traditional "Old Paint," the one song here that's not a cover is a new song of Russell's, "Guadalupe," which is sung - beautifully - by Peters. Though set in Mexico rather than the American West, this in many ways acts as the cornerstone of the CD, addressing the diminished options that come with age, and the unbeliever's desire for faith - or least for some sort of redemption.

The sound throughout is as raw and uncluttered as the Western landscapes it evokes. Barry Walsh's sepia-toned keyboards provide a perfect foil for Peters' warm soprano, suggesting a saloon bar piano of long ago. The other consistent musical texture is provided by Joel Guzman's accordion, weaving melancholy reminders that - emotionally at least - the Mexican border country is never very far from the West described in these songs.

This CD is at once a love song to the American West and a meditation on some of life's tougher challenges - one to the heart and one to the head indeed.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful music, March 2, 2009

By 

Joseph F. Sawyer (Sewickley, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: One To The Heart, One To The Head (Audio CD)

I purchased this CD as soon as it was released because I am a big fan of Tom Russell and Gretchen Peters. I was not disappointed. Such beautiful music, such wonderful voices and harmony. I have done a lot of driving over the past week and I listened to these songs over and over and I can't get enough of them. "Snowing on Raton" "Wolves" "Guadalupe" "Prairie Melancholy" "My Last Go Round" "Blue Mountains of Mexico' are all fantastic. Barry Walsh' keyboard work is just the right touch to a CD I will NEVER grow tired of.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Favorite CD of the Summer of '09, September 17, 2009

By 

Robert N. Talbert "Rob Talbert" (Darnestown, Maryland USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: One To The Heart, One To The Head (Audio CD)

Oddly, I read about this CD in Western Horseman Magazine, not a place I expected to discover a great music performance, and decided to order it from Amazon based on the review. I have loved this CD from the first listen. Admittedly, I am a life-long folky and also a cowboy afficionado. But this CD has qualities that transcend my interests in horses and cowboys and flattop guitars. This is great songwriting, great music, great arrangements. "Guadalupe", written by Russell, is one of the most plantively beautiful and introspective songs I have listened to in a while - I really like it. My favorite is probably "Prairie Melancholy" (Jennifer Warnes & Nancy Bacal) - it's another beautiful ballad with great songwriting craftsmanship.

All of the songs chosen for the CD are great choices

I have been playing this CD every day for a couple of months, I've gone on to collect other records by these two artists, neither of whom I had listened to much before this, and I haven't worn out my infatuation yet. I highly recommend this to anyone who likes beautifully written, beautifully sung folk music with a Western flavor.