Mary Gauthier
pronounced Go-shay you 'all
"Lord knows how many dead dogs she's had..." wrote Sylvie Simmons [MOJO],"Mary Gauthier's background qualifies her for country diva status, if the smoky, been-there voice and credible songs already didn't." The US release of her sophomore cd 'Drag Queens in Limousines,' was nothing short of phenomenal-within six months Mary Gauthier was touring coast to coast and accepting invitations to perform on the mainstages of more than a dozen of the country's most prestigious festivals, from Strawberry Music in California to the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island. While the cd received national airplay and media attention in publications like Billboard and No Depression, Gauthier gathered up awards including Crossroads' Silver Star and the Independent Artist of the Year award.The European release followed in 2001 via Munich Records. Four European tours in less than a year garnered Gauthier high praise in Rolling Stone (4 stars), MOJO (Album of the Month), Q Magazine, Uncut, Les Inrocktibles, and Country Music People, and the admiration of DJs like BBC legend Andy Kershaw. Hundreds of fans were discovering Mary Gauthier's music in the clubs of Amsterdam and London, while thousands saw her for the first time on festival stages in Utrecht and Glasgow. Within days following the tragic events of September 11th while many artists were canceling their international tours, Mary Gauthier left the US for a month-long solo tour in Europe where she closed her shows with Woody Guthrie's 'This Land is Your Land.' The diaries she posted on her website not only kept her in touch with her US fans, but became a vehicle to share the concern, opinions, and sentiments of her fans in Europe.After completing a month-long tour in January 2002, this time with The Walkabouts in Germany and Austria, Mary Gauthier arrived in Paris to find fans lined up for her first show there. It was sold-out.What first drew many to the songs in Mary Gauthier's 'Drag Queens in Limousines' was the way in which the artist celebrated the people whose lives are lived outside of anything resembling normal. "She is in the miserabilist tradition of alt-country," reported The Daily Telegraph after a Gauthier tour, "her narratives depicting the seamy and sad lives of addicts, Aids victims and misfits ...Gauthier's grief is genuine...but while many of the songs are desperately bleak, her moving lyrics and tender music reflect the humanity that exists among people considered to be society's rejects."In 'Filth and Fire' produced by the Texas-based Gurf Morlix, the artist introduces us to people whose moral qualities are tied to spiritual struggles with cords that are thin, frayed, and well-worn. "I see the human condition as always being on the edge," explains Gauthier," I think it comes with knowing that every day could be the day it all comes to an end." In 'Filth & Fire' the listener will find some left hanging by a thread...did she jump or learn to pray out there onThe Ledge? Those who are holding on while trying to find dignity like Davey celebrating Christmas in Paradise living under the Cow Key Bridge. And others who let go with "nuthin' left to lose." From the 'royal denizens' of Camelot Motel, with 'damn good reasons for their sins' who seek anonymity not absolution, to the 'dirty air, dirty laundry, dirty money, dirty rain,' of Gauthier's Louisiana birthplace in Burnin' Sugar Cane, Gauthier's fans will find plenty of the grit they love. But, there's something new here. Transformation. Perhaps it's a reflection of the artist who will readily admit, "It's amazing to me that I'm still alive," yet is ready to put pieces of her past behind her. Or it could be that Gauthier's characters, like the artist herself, are on the edge, but also on the verge. "You have to have a crack in your ego before you develop faith...something has to penetrate," Gauthier explains. People crack, crumble and burn in 'Filth & Fire' as they deal with the everyday dramas that depict universal themes of love vs. lovelessness, community vs. lonliness, and despair vs. faith. But, they're dealing. And for Gauthier, that's what matters most. "The flames leap and burn me there's nothing I can do to make the fear go away. So I try to keep moving, try not to look back, push really hard on the stone. I Walk Through The Fire Alone."
Within a year following the release of her second album, 'Drag Queens in Limousines, in late 1999, Mary Gauthier had toured coast to coast and performed on the mainstages of more than a dozen of the country's most prestigious festivals including the Newport Folk Festival, Strawberry Music Festival, Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, Winterhawk2000: Bluegrass and Beyond, Rocky Mountain Folks Festival, Philadelphia Folk Festival.
Mary continues to tour the US with 2001 summer appearances on the mainstage of Telluride Blugrass Festival, Strawberry Music Festival, and Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, as she breaks new ground in Europe with the release of 'Drag Queens in Limousines" on Munich Records. Released this past spring, the CD continues to garner outstanding reviews in publications like Rolling Stone, MOJO, Q Magazine, and Country Music People. This October will mark Mary's third European tour in six months.
Mary Gauthier (pronounced Go-Shay) explains her music simply, "It's about
telling the truth and making it rhyme." Mary left Thibodaux, Louisiana
at the age of 15, heading for any place where she thought she 'fit in.' She
stumbled through the early years.."It's amazing to me that I am still alive,"
she says. Of her second CD, Mary explained, "Writing the songs for 'Drag
Queens in Limousines' was my way of looking back, but it's also very much about
celebrating the people whose lives are lived outside of anything resembling
normal.By telling stories about the people I've met along the way, including
those who have taken me in, I'm trying to expose the humanity of those whom
many consider to be society's rejects. They're the people I find interesting,
maybe because I have considered myself one of them." Mary writes about
Karla Faye Tucker, the woman executed by the state of Texas in 1998, about the
darker side of drinking in "I Drink," about falling for a hard core
stripper in "Evangeline," and in the title cut 'Drag Queens in Limousines'
about finding 'her people.'For her work in 'Drag Queens in Limousines,"
Mary Gautheir received the Independent Music Award/2001, a Silver Star Crossroads
Magazine, and a GLAMA for Country Artist of the Year. Produced by Crit Harmon,
the album was nominated for Outstanding Folk/Acoustic Album of the Year by the
Boston Music Awards."Bohemian spirit abounds on 'Drag Queens in Limousines,"
along with a wry vision and vocal directness. You'll recognize the characters
who run through Mary's songs, which are slices of life at the turn of the millennium," reviewed Gavin Report.
"One of the best CD's of this year!...Gauthier has a unique voice and
delivery, like a cross between John Prine and Kris Kristofferson...a great unique
view into the dark side of humanity."
- Ed Shimborske Jr., Glass Eye, Toledo, OH
"...Mary Gauthier is many things...a rugged but real quality to both her
vocal deliveries and her songs, not unlike a female version of John Prine. She
is positively refreshing in today's often homogenized country market...she imprints
a genuine passion."
- Mick Skidmore, The Boston Globe/MA
"She writes songs that I can easily compare to the work of the late great
Townes Van Zandt, and sings 'em like she's sometimes channeling the voice of
a folkier Janis Joplin...A real find for me...The kind of record that reinforces
my faith in music and art."
- Vin Scelsa, DJ/Host 'Idiot's Delight' WNEW-FM/NYC
"...(Mary) reminiscent in some ways of John Prine in her direct, clear
clean stories about working class people on the edge with a little early Bob
Dylan twang and some Neil Young whine."
- sonicnet.com
"It's their stories that make Gauthier's songs living embodiments of the
vibrancy of America's misfits...There's nothing artificial or contrived in any
of the songs on Gauthier's two exceptional CDs...Her writing thrives on an organic
simplicity, a deep-felt sense of drama and pacing..."
- Joshua Mamis, The New Haven Advocate/CT
"Her songs are postcards from the edge, so bare and clear they could be
movies instead of tunes...her music is by turns clever, dark, witty, powerful,
and always the truth."
- Rockrgrl
"...it's tempting to characterize Mary Gauthier as a kind of Lucinda Williams
of the demimonde. But though her work can easily bear comparison, "Drag
Queens and Limousines" shows Gauthier is quite capable of standing tall
all by herself."
- Boston Sunday Herald/MA
"This is bittersweet, straight-ahead, gentle music. Sparse, pure and heartfelt.
" - Gavin Report "...(Mary Gauthier) a musician who transforms painful
experiences into little musical epiphanies."
- Derk Richardson, SF Gate/CA
"Part of what distinguished Gauthier was the strong dose of country music
in her folk songs, a mixture that immediately recalls John Prine and Iris DeMent.
There's something about a two-step beat and a hillbilly vocal that separates
the singer from the song and transforms something personal into something universal,
something self-indulgent into something dignified."
- Geoffrey Himes, No Depression
"To say I was completely blown away is an understatement....she has a
luminous future."
- Steve Morse, The Boston Globe/MA
"It's hard to imagine that most of the current hat-hunks and homecoming
queens of Nashville have actually lived anything like the lives of the loners,
wanderers, misfits, outcasts, prisoners and other dark characters and places
they sing about. On the other hand, if anyone's looking for a poster girl for
today's "Wild Side of Life," Mary Gauthier would have to be near the
top of that list.
- John Lupton, Country Standard Times
"Based on the strength of this debut, you might as well learn it now because
this is an artist that's going to be around for a while."
- The Performing Songwriter Magazine, Top DIY /Editor's Choice
"Look closely at the list of singer-songwriters that Mary Gauthier is
most often compared to: John Prine, Steve Harle, Hank Williams, Kris Kristofferson.
Notice anything unusual? What about the fact that non of the artists mentioned
save Gauthier herself is female?.....The album's engaging mix of country and
raw folk is ear-catching, but it's Gauthier's brutally honest lyrics, often
drawn from real life, that hold the listener."
- Greg Glasgow, Daily Camera/CO
"Drag Queens is damn good...it stands out like a diamond...impressive
enough to get this relatively unknown songwriter on the stages of many of the
biggest and best festivals in the country: Kerrville, Strawberry and Newport
Folk among them....the edgiest singer-songwriter Lousisiana has produced since
god knows when...."
- Mike Koster, Thirsty Ear Magazine/NM
"A lot of folks in the music business are finding Ms. Gauthier's music
interesting...the buzz has pegged her as a combination of John Prine, Steve
Earle and Janis Joplin...she has risen rather quickly through the contemporary
folk world in Boston..."
- Susan Van Dongen, Time Off, Princeton Packet/NJ
Silver Star/Contemporary Folk Single Act - Crossroads Magazine
Country Artist of the Year - GLAMA
Currently Semi-Finalist - Independent Music Award
Drag Queens in Limousines - nominated for Outstanding Folk/Acoustic Album of
the Year - Boston Music Awards
