Gretchen Peters – Barony Hall – Celtic Connections – January 18, 2025.

It is safe to say that Gretchen Peters pleased many when she announced she would play this gig after quitting the road two years ago following 25 years of touring here and in Europe.

Like everywhere else, she has long been treasured and admired in Scotland in equal measure.

And here the King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut veteran is in magnificent form for a full house with husband and long-standing accompanist/collaborator, Barry Walsh on keys and accordion, embellishing gloriously her carefully crafted, thoughtful and intelligent songs.

Gretchen rates Celtic Connections, where she’s played many a time, as ‘one of the best festivals in the world’ – her repeat invites have been no surprise given her command of songcraft and ability to engage so personally with her audience.

There’s a sure-footed, undoubted grace in her performance and her impressive back catalogue yields so many uplifting and poignant moments.

At the piano for Independence Day, she reminds us it’s the song that changed her life. It’s a track from 1996’s The Secret Of Life that brought Martina McBride massive success: here the songwriter makes it her own so passionate and refined is her delivery.

Matador, Blackbird, Tom Russell’s Guadeloupe and To Say Goodbye from Burnt Toast and Offerings released back in 2007, are poised, heartfelt, tender, spirited and thoughtful.

Five Minutes, from her 2012 release Hello Cruel World is a showstopper again, a song whose heroine ‘pulls at’ its writer. The lyrics are sublime, ending edgily: “Between the working and the livin’ and the ghosts that haunt my dreams / I’ve got five minutes and I’m gonna smoke this cigarette.”

It’s a stellar performance in a neo-gothic building that’s home to the University of Strathclyde’s graduation ceremonies – a first-class Celtic Connections’ show and a there’s a degree of honour to be in her company.

MIKE RITCHIE

Image: Brendan Cooke