In a conversation on X/Twitter about singer/songwriter Taylor Swift, Carolyn Williams spotlighted:
the depth to which Taylor's lyrics resonate with females of many ages. She explains our lives to us; she makes us feel understood and un-alone. She talks to us as if she & we are best friends. That's why we adore her …
If Taylor’s lyrics strongly resonate with you, there’s a possibility you might also enjoy Gretchen Peters’s music. Both have the keen ability to convey the life experiences of women – with powerful emotional intensity.
Despite that similarity, there’s very little in common between the life arcs of these two singer/songwriters.
Swift, affectionately known as “Tay Tay” by some of her fans, is 34 years old, at the height of her career. She was Billboard’s 2023 Top Artist. Her Eras Tour, in mid-swing, has already become the highest-grossing (in current dollars) musical touring act of all time, with 151 tour dates scheduled for stadium-sized venues across five continents. Her recent romance with NFL Football star Travis Kelce has captured the imagination of millions, along with the ire of some high profile curmudgeons. She has 281 million followers on the Instagram social network.
Peters is 66 years old. With her husband, Barry Walsh, who is also her longtime performing partner, she made her last tour appearance at a small venue in the United Kingdom in June 2023. She has just under 10 thousand followers on Instagram. (Despite that, she’s had her own successes and recognition in her distinguished career, including being inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.)
As well, there are some notable differences in what they write about.
While Swift – by herself or in in collaboration with extraordinary co-writers like Liz Rose – sometimes tells others’ stories, she’s best known for chronicling her own, personal romantic loves, including their ecstacies; their haunting memories, from bittersweet to angrily-recalled; and their painful relationship misunderstandings, via songs like Cornelia Street, All Too Well, and exile.
In contrast, Peters usually writes stories about other characters1, nearly always women. What’s striking is how compellingly it feels like she’s inhabiting their lives and souls, sharing what they’ve experienced in the past and are going through right now.
And this, too: she writes about girls and women at each era of their lives. Not just their experiences from their teens through thirties or forties, so often the focus of popular songs, but also in childhood and old age. It’s particularly rare that songwriters express what it’s like to be elderly; Peters gives voice to that stage of life.
A sampling of Peters’ songs, with subjects across those life stages …
Independence Day
“Well she seemed alright by dawn's early light
Though she looked a little worried and weak
She tried to pretend he wasn't drinkin' again
But daddy left the proof on her cheek
And I was only eight years old that summer
And I always seemed to be in the way
So I took myself down to the fair in town
On Independence Day
“Well word gets around in a small, small town
They said he was a dangerous man
But mama was proud and she stood her ground
She knew she was on the losin end
Some folks whispered, some folks talked
But everybody looked the other way
And when time ran out there was no one about
On Independence Day”
Idlewild
“They're in the front seat, he's got the radio low
And the moon hangs over Idlewild as the planes touch down
He is talking but she's not listening
She is thinking of her father who died when she was young
“I'm in the back seat, they think I'm sleeping
But I am listening for the cracks between their voices in the dark
We are a family, we are a shipwreck
And we're picking up my grandma who is getting very old …
“They built this airport but in a few years
Theyll name it after Kennedy, the one who died today
And he will leave her, and she will suffer
And they will never really know each other at all”2
The Boy From Rye
“The boy from Rye came down on the train
With his parents and his sister …
“All in a row we arranged ourselves for him
Waiting to see if we deserved him
One too fat, one too thin
One too many flaws to measure
Impossible to live inside your skin
And serve at someone else’s pleasure
“Our parents dozed after tennis and a swim
And disappeared into their gin and tonics
And there we were, alone with him
His smile knowing and ironic
“One too strong, one too smart
But none immune to love or summer
One by one he broke our virgin hearts
And set us one against the other”
The House on Auburn Street
“Birthdays and barbecues – come on you sleepy head
He watched the evening news while she put us both to bed …
“You were the older one and I never saw you cry
Always the bolder one; nothing that you wouldn’t try
I found you on the roof shooting sparks into your veins
Staring vacantly across the green suburban plains
“There were rescue missions, ultimatums
There were promises of love
They did the best they could
Oh but it was never quite enough.”
Five Minutes
“My boss Andy says I smoke myself to death
Andy he reminds me some of you
Back when you were Romeo and I was Juliet
West Texas Capulet and Montague
“Now I don't think too much about you anymore
We weren't much more than kids
It was nearly twenty years ago I shut and locked that door
Now I've got five minutes
Not much time to reminisce”
The Matador
“I come to each and every show
The woman in the second row
I watch them in their ancient dance
And I know I never stood a chance …
I thought that I could be the one
But I'm just another hanger-on
“Some man is bleedin' in the dirt
Some woman's crying that she's hurt
But who are we without the thrill
Without the dance, without the kill
And he is bull and matador
And I'm the mother and the whore
And this is how the story goes
I knew it when I threw the rose”
Disappearing Act
“Well I used to be something back in my prime
Had myself a pretty good time
By the looks of me you'd never know it today
Had a ring on my finger at 24
We had 40 good years, then 10 more
He took sick and he died on Christmas Day
“Well I lost two babies, kept one more
Lost him too when he went to war
And all his daddy could say is it'll make him a man”
Arguing with Ghosts
“There’s a picture on the wall
We got married in the fall
Now I don’t know those kids at all …
“The years go by like days
Sometimes the days go by like years
And I don’t know which one I hate the most
At this same old kitchen table
In this same old busted chair
I’m drinking coffee and arguing with ghosts …
“I light one cigarette a day
I watch it burn and I walk away
A wisp of smoke in your old ashtray”
Many of Gretchen Peters’ autobiographical songs are on her “divorce album,” Burnt Toast & Offerings. She talks candidly about that album here.
About the song “Idlewild,” Gretchen Peters writes on her website:
“My father was a journalist; his beat was the Civil Rights movement. After John F. Kennedy was assassinated, my father, in a state of grief and anger, locked himself in the basement. As a small child, I found that terrifying. Not long afterwards, the family of Medgar Evers, the slain civil rights leader, came to stay at our home in Pelham, New York, so that his widow Myrlie and my father could work on her memoir. During their visit there was a snowstorm, and their youngest son, Van and I built a snowman together in the front yard. It was the first time Van had ever seen snow. He was momentarily transported beyond his grief by the magic of it.
“On our black and white TV in the kitchen, I watched Kennedy riding in the back of a limo – shot, fatally wounded, and falling into his wife’s lap, over and over again. In my front yard I played in the snow with a little boy who saw his father gunned down in his own driveway. The political is personal; the personal is political. We think we’re walking on the moon, but we are dancing in the dark.”