Suzy Bogguss, Matraca Berg and Gretchen Peters
Suzy Bogguss, Matraca Berg and Gretchen Peters
Posted: 14 Jun 2011
Wine, Women & Song
Suzy Bogguss, Matraca Berg and Gretchen Peters
The Sage Gateshead, Hall 2
12 June 2011
More of a fireside chat than a routine gig, ‘Wine, Women & Song’ with American country performers Suzy Bogguss, Matraca Berg and Gretchen Peters feels like you’ve been invited around to their place for an evening of chat and singing over a glass of red.
The trio all have major Country Music Association awards to their names, Berg and Peters having won the prestigious ‘Song of the Year’ category, and there’s a relaxed approach to the evening from performers comfortable with a repertoire of almost exclusively sad and haunting songs.
Sales of long-held family farms, relations at war in Iraq and abusive husbands are typical of the raw material here but as Peters says: “Some people think sad songs are depressing, others view them as cathartic – and the people who’ve paid to come and listen to these songs are all in the second group.”
She was right and the packed audience of loyal devotees lapped it up. Songs like Peters’ ‘To Say Goodbye’ and Berg’s ‘Black Ribbon” were highlights, as was Bogguss’s performance of the traditional ‘Shenandoah’ from her new American Songbook album. But as always Gretchen Peters’ ‘On a bus to St Cloud’ was enough to jerk tears from the hardest heart.
‘Wine, Women & Song’ have been to the Sage several times now. If you don’t like sad songs stay away – but if they’re cathartic for you, make sure you’re there next time.
Rob Mason
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