Gretchen Peters (born November 14, 1957 in Bronxville, New York) is a singer-songwriter in the folk/country genre. She was born in New York and raised in Boulder, Colorado, but moved to Nashville in the late 1980s. There, she found work as a songwriter, composing hits for Martina McBride, Etta James, Trisha Yearwood, Patty Loveless, George Strait, as well as for rock singers Neil Diamond and co-writing songs with Bryan Adams.[1] She also won the Country Music Association Song Of The Year award for McBride's "Independence Day" in 1995. In addition, Peters has released seven studio albums of her own. The title track of her 1996 debut album The Secret of Life was later recorded by Faith Hill in 1999, for whom it was a Top 5 country hit. ——from Wikipedia