Gretchen Peters graced the stage of The Rutledge last Friday in celebration of her new album, Hello Cruel World. The album's title, a pun on the famed exit line, reminiscent of the Shakespearean quote, “once more into the breach, dear friends, once more,” the 11-track record is a masterful voyage through the pains and promises of morality, presupposing the album will be a favorite among fans of the singer/songwriter for countless years to come.

Gretchen, backed by four of the city's most dynamic professional musicians, including husband Barry Walsh on the keys and accordion, took the audience on a flirtatious voyage through a set textured in raw chords and minimal exposure to distortion, taking on Americana roots and genre-defying flexibility. Songs like the title track “Hello Cruel World” maintains an eerie and dark-textured country and bluegrass feel, while a song like “Camille” is a slow-paced bluesy and jazz-sounding trip. The set, a reflection of the album, was a poetic voyage that showed Gretchen's vulnerability, strength and triumphs, finding comfort in a chaotic world she has come to know so well.

Her textured rhythms and full band sound rounded out the set with grace and an honest grit only known as southern elegance. Gretchen's voice is sweet, aged in honey, with each note a mellifluous stroke of environmental beauty meeting a hard working industrial past. She approached the stage last night the same way she approaches life, with a rock ‘n’ roll temperament, a poetic soul and in the company of Nashville musicians that are as professional as it gets.

In songs like “5 minutes,” Gretchen embodies every person who has ever lost something that has shaped them more than ever could be said, and before being taken away by the memory, continuing with life after 5 minutes are up. On “The Matador” she tells a story of love and pain, suffering from the ephemeral woes quickly made, deep seated emotions bring. The performance is possibly the most elegant Nashville has seen this year, and as Gretchen takes to the road for a European tour, fans from all around the world will be rejoicing to experience so much of this woman's life through honest storytelling and poetic vulnerabilities.

The lines from the song “Paradise Found,” “I don't believe in no hold jihad, I don't believe in original sin, I believe in theheat underneath our skin,” it’s clear Gretchen Peters sure as hell believes in her art, and seeing her play live is an experience in personal discovery and a soul warming attraction. – D.H. Wright

Stream the whole album here.