ON TOUR – Wine, Women & Song
Yes the Girls Are Back In Town!
On this their 3rd UK tour Wine, Women & Song (WW&S) who comprise 3 of Nashville’s most respected songwriters and artists Gretchen Peters, Matraca Berg and Suzy Bogguss will be playing 16 dates in June. Included will be an appearance at The Glastonbury Festival appearing on the Acoustic Stage on Sunday 26 June.
On Wednesday 22 June 2011, the BBC Radio 2 network is set to turn its schedule upside down for 2DAY – a -12 hour on air celebration of everything the station has to offer. Presenters Bob Harris and Mike Harding team up to introduce unique performances including these 3 ladies live from BBC’s Maida Vale studios.
They have been longtime friends for 20 years. The first association came when Suzy was one of the first people Gretchen met when she moved to Nashville. Fast forward sitting around together chilling out after doing a show they discovered how much fun it was singing and harmonizing on songs that they had sung in bars.
Berg hatched the name Wine, Women & Song. One wonders as a country aficionado if she picked up on it with her citing Loretta Lynn as a major influence. The song of the same name appeared on her album BEFORE I’M OVER YOU in 1964 penned by Betty Sue Perry. Gretchen jokingly refers to the trio as Charlies Angels from the 70’s American TV Series. The cliché “wine, women, and song” describes a lifestyle or set of behaviors which are indulgent or pleasure-seeking!
Their concert format is like a Bluebird Café In The Round with loose implications – getting priorities straight, wine, then being friends and then throwing in some songs for good measure. They are comfortable with each other there are no egos! The essence with conversation as well as performing topics can take them anywhere. The nature of WW&S is a very off the cuff affair, the song selection changes from night to night. Between them they have a massive back catalogue of songs. The set can be changed according to mood, requests, etc. They like use 3 part harmony as much as possible.
No night is the same, Gretchen likens it to “coming to one our living rooms but with better hair and make-up”
On their last tour in 2009 they were promoting a limited edition 6 track EP called THE SEWANEE SESSIONS recorded at a cabin getaway. It included the traditional ‘Farther Along’, ‘Heartache’ (Lowell George) and an adaption of ‘Wild Horses’ (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards)
A new DVD filmed in historic Leipers Fork, Tennessee, is completed and it will be available at the UK shows and eventually in America.
Billed as “Wine, Women & Song: an evening of song, conversation and laughter with Suzy Bogguss, Gretchen Peters and Matraca Berg” – Expect plenty of all three!
Watch their Promotional Video and see a listing of all their UK Tour dates on their FACEBOOK page
Full venue details here – http://www.moneypennymusic.co.uk/content/wine-women-song
Sources – BBC Press Release
About: Matraca Berg (“Quiet & Mysterious”)
Born in Music City, Matraca is one of the most respected songwriters in country music. She has credits on numerous albums with artists such as Patty Loveless, Gretchen Wilson, Suzy Bogguss, Trisha Yearwood and Reba McEntire. She is best known as the writer of the major smash single ‘Strawberry Wine’ recorded by Deana Carter which she won the Song of the Year at the CMA’s in 1997. Those female artists have the voice for her music over 20-years. Due to unfortunate events with labels Matraca did not have the success as a recording artist in her own right. Her magnificent 1997 album SUNDAY MORNING TO SATURDAY NIGHT is something of a lost in the ozone gem. Recorded on Rising Tide, not long after its release Universal Music closed down the label. Since then she concentrated solely as a songwriter, doing demos for other artists – she lives and breaths song writing.
The new single by Kenny Chesney (a duet with Grace Potter) called”You and Tequila,” (written by Matraca and Deana Carter) is moving up the Billboard Country Chart.
Encouraged by Gretchen Peters she toured the UK for the first time in 10-years in 2007 with WW &Song. On the 2009 tour Matraca was selling a limited pre-release called SOUTH OF HEAVEN.
This week 17 May 2011 she returned to the music world with THE DREAMING FIELDS, her first official album release for fourteen years.
It’s reflective of the influential records she grew up listening to ““I was raised on Harvest and Blue, Pieces of the Sky,” she says
The record examines the trials and tribulations of women’s lives. Trisha Yearwood has a rendition of the title cut Dreaming Fields on her album: HEAVEN, HEARTACHE, and AND THE POWER OF LOVE.
Expect to hear Matraca’s new songs on the tour.
The Dreaming Fields Music Samples http://www.fishrecords.co.uk/reviews/thedreamingfields.htm
Website – http://www.matracaberg.com/
About: Gretchen Peters (“Head Girl” / “The Geek”)
One of the finest songwriters in Nashville for over 20-years, Gretchen is probably best known as the writer of Martina McBride’s career song ‘Independence Day’. Over the years she has grown a large and loyal following in the UK, largely helped with exposure on BBC Radio 2 – Sir Terry Wogan being one of her admirers. Her ongoing popularity resulted in the concept of bringing over the WW&S show in 2007 – “I had this wild idea and it kind of just took off” she said. Gretchen is the brains, glue of the WW&Song trio and its main spokesperson.
In April she returned to America after a whirlwind tour of Holland and Germany. This comprised of 15 shows in 16 days – “Which flew by like the daredevils in the left lane of the Autobahn. The travel was both exhilarating and exhausting, as always. But it never fails to puts things into perspective “she says.
Her second stop-off on the tour was at the Crystal Club in Berlin. Read the German review for this show – http://www.tagesspiegel.de/kultur/pop/falsche-hymne-fuer-sarah-palin/3946080.html or the English translation at http://www.gretchenpeters.com/news.php
On the tourist tail in Cologne she saw a postcard with an aerial view of the cathedral just after the bombing in World War II. The cathedral stood alone like an apparition amid the ruins. She wondered if her father (who died a few years ago) was one of the B17 bomber pilots who flew over Cologne and dropped his payload there. She learnt from her mother, he was shot down while on a bombing run over Germany. His B17 bomber was chased by 25 German Focke-Wulf fighter planes. Her father’s plane went down, so full of holes it sank in 90 seconds. They had one functional life raft and another that was half intact. The 9 surviving crewmen clung to them in the North Sea for six hours until they were rescued.
During May Gretchen has been in the studio working on a new album. The band consisted of Barry Walsh (her husband), Will Kimbrough, Doug Lancio, Viktor Krauss and John Gardner. Rodney Crowell sings a duet with her on a new song called ‘Dark Angel’. Gretchen is still in the process of completing this project regarding over-dubbing, vocals, etc. No release date has yet been set for the album. No doubt she will be showcasing some new material on the tour to give fans a tester of what to expect.
About: Suzy Bogguss (“The Blonde One” / “Farrah Fawcett “)
Suzy has co-written with both Gretchen Peters and Matraca Berg and recorded songs by both. These include ‘Give Me Some Wheels’, ‘Hey Cinderella’, ‘Somebody to Love’ and ‘Waiting For The Light To Turn Green’.
She is certainly one of the finest female country singers over the past 20-years. As a small town girl hailing from Illinois, she started out as a yodelling singer booking her own shows and travelled in a camper van driving herself to each gig. She moved to Nashville in 1985, and with a step by step approach headlined at Dollywood, signed with Capitol Records garnering 1 platinum and 3 gold records which led to her winning in 1992 a Horizon Award at The CMA’s.
She last toured the UK as a solo artist in 2010. At those shows she was selling a limited edition CD sampler called WILDFLOWER. With songs such as ‘Shady Grove’, ‘Shenandoah’ and ‘Old Dan Tucker’ these American folk songs represented a preview of an expected 17 track recording called THE AMERICAN FOLK SONG PROJECT. Musicians taking part are Pat Bergeson, Charlie Chadwick, Stuart Duncan, Jerry Douglas, and Harry Stinson. It is to be released via Cracker Barrel Records cited as a possible July release “It’s different. It’s kind of a palette cleanser,” says Suzy (Source – The Boot)
Watch Suzy perform Shenandoah at the Folk Alliance Showcase – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe3rd1Lx3sE
Website – http://www.suzybogguss.com/
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