Gretchen Peters Rankdown Revealing Now!

[castleoblivion26]

#34
"Here I Am" ~ Bryan Adams



227 Points

bboat11 ~ 15
castleoblivion26 ~ 21
someguy ~ 26
tim ~ 27
BackwoodsBarbie ~ 30
Darkest Hour ~ 36
Kanenrá:ke ~ 36
.indulgecountry ~ 36

[bboat11]

Maybe I just ranked this one higher because it gave me nostalgia for the Spirit movie? Lmao

[.indulgecountry]

This just flat-out sucked. No other competition for my last place.

[castleoblivion26]

#33
"Traveller's Prayer" ~ George Jones Ft Sweethearts of the Rodeo



225 Points

bboat11 ~ 9
Darkest Hour ~ 22
BackwoodsBarbie ~ 28
Kanenrá:ke ~ 32
castleoblivion26 ~ 33
someguy ~ 33
.indulgecountry ~ 33
tim ~ 35

[bboat11]

This one was really catchy!!! Can't believe it didn't get more middling ranks, at the very minimum!

[castleoblivion26]

#32
"Love's Been Rough On Me" ~ Lee Roy Parnell



222 Points

Darkest Hour ~ 24
castleoblivion26 ~ 25
someguy ~ 25
tim ~ 26
BackwoodsBarbie ~ 26
Kanenrá:ke ~ 27
bboat11 ~ 34
.indulgecountry ~ 35

[castleoblivion26]

#31
"High Lonesome" ~ Randy Travis



216 Points

.indulgecountry ~ 17
Darkest Hour ~ 18
BackwoodsBarbie ~ 23
tim ~ 28
bboat11 ~ 30
castleoblivion26 ~ 31
Kanenrá:ke ~ 33
someguy ~ 36

[Kanenrá:ke]

Shocked "Racing The Angels" was out second, such a beautiful song and I really enjoy Matraca. Such a shame.

Not surprised Lee Roy didn't get far and I even only had it at #27 but it's a strong song.

"Traveller's Prayer" is catchy, but George has had better and honestly it doesn't feel like a Gretchen song to me, cool to see Sweet Hearts Of The Rodeo be in a rankdown, I think this is their first?

"High Lonesome" has always been pretty low for Randy for me so I'm not too surprised it's out already.

"Love Is A Drug" I like some parts of it but it is easily the worst Gretchen lead song here.

"Here I Am" was an instant last place for me, Bryan is usually hit or miss for me.

[tim]

I’ve actually never seen The Spirit movie but do remember hearing “Here I Am” quite a bit back in 2008. I don’t really dislike the song but I also have no strong feelings towards it and so seeing it leave in the bottom 3 isn’t at all surprising.

And I pretty much predicted that “Traveller’s Prayer”, “Love’s Been Rough On Me”, and “High Lonesome” would be out somewhere near the bottom 5 so thus far the only surprise has been seeing “Racing the Angels” exit (which I’m still shook over!).

Nov 12, 2019 0:37:41 GMT -5 Kanenrá:ke said:

"Traveller's Prayer" is catchy, but George has had better and honestly it doesn't feel like a Gretchen song to me, cool to see Sweet Hearts Of The Rodeo be in a rankdown, I think this is their first?

I believe this would be their third showcase as Cody Wants Out... featured them in his Country Group Mania rankdown and I also featured them in the 80’s Ladies of Country rankdown!

[castleoblivion26]

#30
"My Baby Loves Me (Just The Way That I Am)" ~ Patricia Conroy



194 Points

BackwoodsBarbie ~ 12
someguy ~ 13
bboat11 ~ 18
.indulgecountry ~ 27
Darkest Hour ~ 28
tim ~ 30
Kanenrá:ke ~ 30
castleoblivion26 ~ 36

[castleoblivion26]

#29
"Like Water Into Wine" ~ Patty Loveless



182 Points

Darkest Hour ~ 6
Kanenrá:ke ~ 17
tim ~ 21
castleoblivion26 ~ 23
bboat11 ~ 25
someguy ~ 27
BackwoodsBarbie ~ 31
.indulgecountry ~ 32

[bboat11]

"My Baby Love's Me" is a damn good song, regardless of who sings it, so I am surprised to see Patricia's version being so relatively disliked here. Martina has more name recognition, and is definitely the one who made the song an iconic moment in country music history, so hopefully hers lasts a lot longer.

"Like Water Into Wine" was on the boring side here. It's not one of my favorites from Patty. It doesn't have the same "wow" factor that a lot of Gretchen's songs usually do.

[castleoblivion26]

#28
"To Say Goodbye" ~ Gretchen Peters



180 Points

tim ~ 3
castleoblivion26 ~ 10
Darkest Hour ~ 11
bboat11 ~ 29
someguy ~ 30
Kanenrá:ke ~ 31
.indulgecountry ~ 31
BackwoodsBarbie ~ 35

[tim]

Wasn’t a fan of Patricia’s “My Baby Loves Me” and of course having only known Martina’s version all of these years it was hard not to try and compare the two.

I expected “Like Water Into Wine” to perform maybe a bit better than it did as I’ve always loved it but I can see how some may find it hard to get into.

Man y’all are really hurting me with these tough loses and none more so than “To Say Goodbye”. Love everything about this and it was the one song that when I saw Gretchen perform brought tears not just to my eyes but many around me. I especially love this line:

We are dreamers, slowly wakin’
We are shootin’ stars across a midnight sky
We are strangers in the makin’
We’re not ready to say goodbye

[Darkest Hour]

I don't use Bryan Adams' vocals at all and cliche lyrics.
Traveller's Prayer sounds a bit too dated for my taste.
I mean this rankdown is mainly ranking Gretchen's songwriting rather than artists' performance, so I don't see the reason why Patricia Conroy's version has to be here.
I like the "see-through" aspect of those words: All the pain and sorrow/And all the bitter tears/They're just water baby/Just water into wine in Like Water Into Wine. What a beautiful analogy.
The orchestra opening in To Say Goodbye is great. I like this atmosphere from Gretchen more than her early adult contemporary sounding songs.

[Kanenrá:ke]

"My Baby Love's Me" - Patricia's take on the song is still good, but pales to Martina's imo because there's more of an excited sound to Martina's vocal.

"Like Water Into Wine" is fantastic lyrically but is a bit on the boring side melodically, It needed a little oomph somewhere. Still amazing lyrics carried it to my #17.

"To Say Goodbye" is another great lyric and I enjoy the production, I can't explain why it was so low for me but it was hard to move it any higher.

[castleoblivion26]

#27
"Hello Cruel World" ~ Gretchen Peters



179 Points

Darkest Hour ~ 7
Kanenrá:ke ~ 9
.indulgecountry ~ 19
castleoblivion26 ~ 24
BackwoodsBarbie ~ 25
someguy ~ 29
tim ~ 31
bboat11 ~ 35

[castleoblivion26]

#26
"I'll Paint the Town" ~ Highway 101



177 Points

.indulgecountry ~ 7
BackwoodsBarbie ~ 10
Kanenrá:ke ~ 19
bboat11 ~ 21
Darkest Hour ~ 25
tim ~ 29
someguy ~ 32
castleoblivion26 ~ 34

[castleoblivion26]

#25
"Still Life With A Heartache" ~ Patricia Conroy



172 Points

bboat11 ~ 11
Darkest Hour ~ 15
.indulgecountry ~ 16
someguy ~ 20
Kanenrá:ke ~ 23
BackwoodsBarbie ~ 24
castleoblivion26 ~ 29
tim ~ 34

[castleoblivion26]

#24
"Independence Day" ~ Carrie Underwood



172 Points

someguy ~ 9
Darkest Hour ~ 13
bboat11 ~ 13
.indulgecountry ~ 15
BackwoodsBarbie ~ 20
tim ~ 32
castleoblivion26 ~ 35
Kanenrá:ke ~ 35

[tim]

“Hello Cruel World” isn’t one of my go-to songs by Gretchen as it just isn’t something that I care to revisit much. I do like the way she puts emphasis on the I'm a very stubborn girl line, though lol.

The few rankdowns that Highway 101 have been featured in thus far have led me to believe they are quite underrated here on Pulse, but that said “I’ll Paint the Town” is just an ok album track and kind of gets lost in the shuffle here amongst the other songs in the rankdown.

I can see why some of you might like “Still Life With a Heartache” and while I like the song lyrically I just found I wasn’t a fan much of Patricia’s vocals. Since both Patty Loveless and Suzy Bogguss were just taking off when this song was recorded I wonder how it would’ve sounded coming from them.

Didn’t really have any desire to revisit Carrie’s early American Idol performances and probably would’ve like to have seen another Gretchen song included in lieu of this since her version pales in comparison to Martina’s.

[bboat11]

SHOCKED that Carrie’s “Independence Day” did THIS poorly! I couldn’t rank it bad because it is still one of the most incredible songs ever written, regardless of who sings it. And a “regardless of who sings it” designation frankly isn’t even necessary in this case, because Carrie Underwood is a fantastic vocalist who really sings the heck out of this one! Unfortunately for her, Martina struck gold with this song. It is absolutely PERFECT for her voice. Her mezzo voice next to Carrie’s soprano just sounds so much more natural on the lower verses. And young Martina had way more texture and maturity to her voice than young Carrie, so while they both tackle the chorus with power, Martina’s recording just carries so much more weight. Plus Martina got the big production budget to do the song justice. Carrie’s is good, but basically just sounds like a good karaoke attempt.

[castleoblivion26]

My problem with Carrie Underwood's version of "Independence Day" is that I feel that she sings it with a lot of power but she sings it with barely any emotion, which is where Martina owns this song. For this reason is why I had it so low. Its funny because I did like her on American Idol but never could get into her cover of this performance, she had others that were a lot better that season.

[castleoblivion26]

#23
"When You Are Old" ~ Martina McBride



165 Points

bboat11 ~ 6
Darkest Hour ~ 12
castleoblivion26 ~ 13
someguy ~ 14
Kanenrá:ke ~ 24
.indulgecountry ~ 30
tim ~ 33
BackwoodsBarbie ~ 33

[bboat11]

"When You Are Old" is so over-hated. This is one of my favorite vocal performances from Martina's early years. Gretchen's lyrics give this song an incredible scaffolding, and Martina's emotional vocal performance brings it to life. I'm a little pleasantly surprised that it has lasted so long, but only because I have prior knowledge of its detractors. If this were this song's first rankdown, I would be extremely unhappy to see it miss the top 20!

[castleoblivion26]

#22
"What Would It Take" ~ Anne Murray



164 Points

BackwoodsBarbie ~ 6
castleoblivion26 ~ 15
someguy ~ 16
bboat11 ~ 19
.indulgecountry ~ 23
tim ~ 24
Kanenrá:ke ~ 29
Darkest Hour ~ 32

[tim]

I’m actually partial to Gretchen’s version of “When You Are Old” so far that reason Martina’s fell further down on my list. I had assumed Gretchen’s would be the first to exit and while I don’t expect it to make it much further I have to say the correct one left first.

Pleasantly surprised Anne Murray made it as far as she did and I’m happy to see her represented again in a country rankdown (the only other one I can think of thus far was for 80’s Ladies of Country). She is definitely someone who has left her mark on country music.

[castleoblivion26]

#21
"Black Ribbons" ~ Gretchen Peters



164 Points

Darkest Hour ~ 3
Kanenrá:ke ~ 7
castleoblivion26 ~ 16
.indulgecountry ~ 22
tim ~ 25
BackwoodsBarbie ~ 27
someguy ~ 31
bboat11 ~ 33

[BackwoodsBarbie]

I'll Paint the Town and What Would It Take are my two favourite discoveries.
I like melody of What Would It Take, especially on chorus - it's kind of catchy.

[castleoblivion26]

#20
"When You Are Old" ~ Gretchen Peters



161 Points

bboat11 ~ 12
tim ~ 14
Kanenrá:ke ~ 15
someguy ~ 18
castleoblivion26 ~ 20
.indulgecountry ~ 26
Darkest Hour ~ 27
BackwoodsBarbie ~ 29