Gretchen Peters (2000)

Haar tweede album, uit 2000. "This is a musical autobiography, a concept recording about coming of age, bittersweet memories, and the haunting of a life with old ghosts. While it didn't even grace the country Top 100, it doesn't matter. Peters, simply because of her songwriting skill (just ask Martina McBride, Patty Loveless, and Trisha Yearwood, who've scored hits with Peters' tunes), deserves to be taken seriously as an artist, one who helped to shape contemporary country while playing both sides of the studio system fence without making any sort of artistic compromise. The songs range from the stellar opener, "Souvenirs," with its laid-back hand percussion and Caribbean feel, to rootsy alterna-country like "In a Better World," moody ballads like "Love and Texaco," the truly beautiful and moving "Amelia and Me," the midtempo, lushly orchestrated "Like Water into Wine," and the truly enigmatic "Picasso and Me," which could have been covered by Rickie Lee Jones in her beat days." (Thom Jurek, Allmusic)