Customer Reviews

The Secret of Life

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This CD has it all.. it is deeply introspective, from so many points of view, it reflects life in different lights that aren't thought of every day-the best song on this in my opinion is Circus Girl, this is one example of the amazing aura that Gretchen creates throughout this album. Everyone needs a copy!!

This is the new reissue of Gretchen Peters' debut album, "The Secret Of Life," with one bonus track. The tracks are: 1. Waiting for the light to turn green 2. Border Town 3. I Ain't Ever Satisfied 4. I Was Looking For You 5. On A Bus To St. Cloud 6. Over Africa 7. The Secret Of Life 8. A Room With A View 9. Circus Girl 10. When You Are Old 11. Independence Day. Several of these songs were later recorded by other artists and became hits...you will probably recognize Faith Hill's "Secret Of Life", Martina McBride's "Independence Day" and "When You Are Old", and Trisha Yearwood's "On A Bus To St. Cloud". Gretchen Peters has a sweet soprano voice that is clear and strong, and all the songs could fit equally in the pop, rock, folk, or country vein. If you like Sara Evans, Linda Rondstadt, or Martina McBride you should love this CD. There's a reason why copies of this cd were ...on ... when it was out of print...find out for yourself what you've been missing!

The Secret Of Life is one of the strongest releases I have heard in a long time. Gretchens ability to communicate an idea or emotion is amazing and her vocals are truly beautiful. If you like well written material sung by one who is well versed in evoking thought and feeling, this ones for you.

This CD has not left my CD player since the day I bought it (almost two years ago). It is by far the best CD I have ever purchased from the first track to the last.

If you want thought provoking, inspiring music - look no further. Each listen invokes new ideas and emotions. No other singer/songwriter touches your soul like Gretchen Peters!

Gretchen Peters has written many great songs and also many hits to some of Nashville's most famous artists, but, unfortunately, she's not very well known as an artist. She has a, not perfect, but characteristic and very beautiful voice. And the songs are very good. Also the weakest song, "I Ain't Ever Satisfied" (the only song on the album she didn't write or co-write), is good and a potential hit single. The rest of the songs are all as good as the best ones on many albums of the artists who have sung Gretchen's songs. One of the first of Gretchen's songs I heard was "On a Bus to St Cloud". Her own version is even better than Trisha Yearwood's. It's a very beautiful song, but not the best song on the album. All of the songs are high standard and there are no fillers.

There is no doubt that Gretchen Peter's is one of the best songwriters in Nashville, maybe in the world, and she is also a very good singer. If you like music with good melodies and lyrics - Buy this album! I can almost promise you that you will love it and play it a lot. It's worth every penny. With better promotion, this album could easily be a best seller. It's better than most best sellers. It's probably one of the best albums, at least debuts, of the last decade.

I loved this album-i had only seen it reviewed as a country album, which didn't do it justice, because this couldn't be put into a specific genre, in my opinion. Every word on this album is so deeply thought out, and the vocals show that Gretchen really put that amount of feeling into it too...i recommend this to anybody who wants to sit back and relax and just listen to a great album with lots of amazing stories.

The lyrics are wonderful and thoughtfull. I want another album of the same caliber, please.

This is an incredible CD from a very strong songwriter, and a mighty fine singer. Gretchen Peters belts out songs with a full, honeyed voice, and these arrangements of her songs seem influenced by other good Nashville singer-songwriters such as Steve Earle and Mary Chapin Carpenter. But make no mistake, Peters is an original. There is actually a cut by Steve Earle here that she makes her own, "I Ain't Ever Satisfied", with the result a harder driving, more desperate sounding version than Earle's freer and easier cut. It doesn't hurt to have Earle, Emmylou Harris,Raoul Malo, Harry Stinson and Billy Thomas on backing vocals.

The musicians and Peters have an almost seamless blend. At times it sounds as though the music was recorded live with just about everything on the same track. The piano helps especially to bring out a full bodied, almost orchestral sound.

"Secret of Life" also harkens back to the day of "album rock", when the songs on an lp had a grand theme. Here, the theme is profound longing. Most of the songs: "I Ain't Ever Satisfied", "On a Bus to St. Cloud", and especially "I Was Looking For You" feature heroines who seem to have come inches away from what they needed, only to have it slip away, leaving them longing for more. They may evoke memories of times of longing in the listener's life, and that is where the heartbreak in this review's title comes in. In the great blues tradition (although this is not by any means a blues album), such melodies seem to help mend our unresolved issues, even as they remind us of them. Not sure why that is, although I suspect it's something to do with getting the message, "Yeah, I been there too, and it hurt, but I survived."

But all is not dark and despair: "Over Africa" and "When You Are Old" are both pledges of fierce loyalty in love, come what may. The title track is a good dose of plain old country wisdom.

Gretchen Peter's is one of Nashvilles best songwriters for a good reason. Beautiful songs, beautifully arranged and sung. No need for a wordy review here as the album speaks for itself.
Each track is a potential hit.

Being a Douglas Adams reader, I thought the secret of life was 42 . . . ha ha ha . . . until I learnt of this lovely lady! Gretchen Peters is someone I discovered one morning at work back in April, driving the truck and suddenly on BBC Radio 2, this beautiful song called ON A BUS TO ST CLOUD comes on. I just pulled over by the side of the road in tears thinking WHO IS THIS? And my prayers were answered! This classic Peters track features on this CD, along with many other of her favorites such as I AN'T NEVER SATISFIED, the acoustic folky CIRCUS GIRL which is another tender one that wil rip your heart out, all about being a performer on the road and how people can rush you by too quick to become real friends, ROOM WITH A VIEW, an uptempo country rocker about being content with what you have in life and making a point that there is definitely more to this life we have than making money. The title track THE SECRET OF LIFE also carries this theme; these days it's more relevant than ever, as many people crave the lifestyle of so-called celebrites. WHEN YOU ARE OLD, like other tracks on the CD, has some top piano playing by Barry Walsh, who also performed on Beth Nielsen Chapman's great SAND AND WATER. Another ballad that just makes me weep. Gretchen is also a lovely person and is very kind to her fans indeed; I met her after a concert in Bristol, UK, last September(2005) and she was simply wonderful to talk to. If you like artists like Beth NC, Faith Hill and Trisha Yearwood, I recommend Gretchen Peters with all my heart, you will not be disappointed!