Songwriter Gretchen Peters is a go-to for artists seeking material whose lyric depth matches its hooks. She continually goes into the marrow, revealing the secrets that result in a song's defining decisions and cathartic actions. This is especially true on her own recordings. Blackbirds takes these to an entirely new level, one shared with peers like Mickey Newbury's It Looks Like Rain and Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska. Here she explores mortality with an unflinching gaze through a variety of character perspectives and musical styles. The album was co-produced by artist and keyboardist Barry Walsh and guitarist Doug Lancio (bassist Dave Roe and drummer Nick Buda are the core band on a set featuring numerous guests). The title is a murder ballad co-written with Ben Glover. Lancio's grimy, distorted guitar recalls Neil Young's with Crazy Horse. Walsh's organ and Will Kimbrough's slide mandola color a brooding narrative that explodes in its startlingly unrepentant chorus and conclusion. "When All You Got Is a Hammer" is a rocker with Kimbrough tempering the tension with his charango. Jerry Douglas adds dobro and Jason Isbell a backing vocal in this chilling tale of a veteran unable to cope: "Well they show you how to shoot and they show you how to kill/But they don't show what to do with this hole you can't fill…" Poignancy is just as resonant on songs that contain gentler arrangements. "The House on Auburn Street" -- with Kim Richey on backing vocals -- is a lilting tome to an absent friend. It frames the irony of suburban America as the mirror for darkness, addiction, and violence. The roaming Americana in "When You Comin' Home" features a duet with Jimmy LaFave. Its story is of lovers estranged because one is stuck in the cage of street life and substance abuse. On "Jubilee," Peters sings country gospel accompanied only by Walsh's gospel piano and David Henry's cello. Her protagonist accepts death as a freedom of the spirit, made whole by love from the prison of the body. "Black Ribbons" is a brooding Cajun-tinged folk-blues that evolves into a roiling rocker. Pump organ, accordion, electric guitars, banjo, and drums fuel the tale of a man saying a dark and helpless goodbye to his wife in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina -- it's not clear whether it was the storm or hopelessness that took her life. The lone cover here, David Mead's tender but steely "Nashville," is about another kind of death -- that of a relationship. "The Cure for the Pain" is set in a hospital room during the waning moments of life. The protagonist experiences anger and moves to acceptance and the peace that comes with it. While it would be a fitting conclusion, Peters, a Nashville Songwriter's Hall of Famer, knows that life is messy. The title song is reprised with a different arrangement as a bookend. Blackbirds may be dark and unsettling, but it's far from depressing. It is a profound, poetic, career-defining album from a singer and songwriter of the highest order.

I'm enjoying the album, the first I've heard from her.