For Mary Gauthier, songwriting goes way beyond conveying her thoughts and emotions. It was also a lifeline when she embraced sobriety back in 1990. Songwriting’s appeal was important enough for Gauthier to swap being an acclaimed chef at a wildly successful Cajun restaurant in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood to head to Nashville in her mid-thirties to pursue a dream of becoming a professional musician. Fast forward to the present day, and the 63-year-old singer-songwriter is touring with partner Jaimee Harris and not only celebrating the 25-year-plus anniversary of Gauthier’s 1999 sophomore bow, Drag Queens in Limousines, but also giving love to her most recent studio effort, 2022’s Dark Enough to See the Stars. Her love of compositional craft will be on full display when she and Harris roll into Bayport on September 26.
“We’re going to be playing songs from all the records I made and telling stories,” Gauthier said. “I’m out here with Jaimee Harris. She opens the shows, sings, and plays with me. We’re having a great time out here with this great thing going that’s really working for both of us. We’re storytellers, so there’ll be stories between the songs; that’s all part of this troubadour show. There’s no smoke, mirrors, or flashy stuff. It’s more heartfelt human stories.”
It’s that musical approach that’s garnered the southern Louisiana native numerous accolades ever since she released her 1997 debut Dixie Kitchen. She was nominated for three Gay and Lesbian American Music Awards (GLAMAs), winning best new country artist. She was also named New/Emerging Artist of the Year by the Americana Music Association in 2005. More recently, 2018’s Rifles and Rosary Beads, a project where Gauthier co-wrote songs with U.S. veterans and their families, earned her a 2019 Best Folk Album Grammy nomination.
It’s that heartfelt dedication and expertise that make Dark Enough to See the Stars such a compelling listen. Recorded in a three-day burst as the world was coming out of the pandemic, these songs are steeped in the inspiration of Gauthier’s evolving relationship with Harris and personal losses.
It was during this time that she was mourning the deaths of numerous personal friends, including John Prine, David Olney, Nanci Griffith, and beloved friend and hiking buddy Betsy, all who passed in a short window of time during the COVID-19 lockdown.
“A lot of those songs were written as an odd combo of love songs and songs about grief – they somehow go together,” Gauthier explained. “Maybe love and grief are attached inseparably? I’m not sure, but it seems to work. I lost so many people I cared about in such a short time. It’s still shocking to me that I have a list of 18 people I have on speed dial and they’re dead in two years.”
She added, “The thing about death is you’re not prepared for it. You don’t think of yourself as old or older. You’re feeling good, life is going along as it always has, and there’s no way you can be emotionally prepared for it.”
Hard times have proven to be fodder for so many songs Gauthier has composed. Adopted from a New Orleans orphanage, she spent her teen years surviving an alcoholic father, abusing drugs and alcohol, and navigating the Deep South in the late ‘60s and ‘70s as a gay kid. Music always provided solace, particularly ‘70s singer-songwriters like Prine, and other artists from the emerging Americana movement, including Griffith, Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, and Lucinda Williams.
“I’ve always been interested in the singer-songwriter from the South, which is different than country music,” Gauthier explained. “I like southerners who master language. It’s American roots music in that it’s from that place in the Deep South, steeped in a lot of pain that I like to call the Americana Triangle – New Orleans to Memphis to Clarksdale, MS. It’s rooted in American-type pain, which almost always has some component of race in it along with a gothic southern sensibility that’s quite Faulkneresque with some. Flannery O’Connor thrown in straight away.”
That fealty to the art of musical composition led Gauthier to teaching songwriting workshops and eventually publishing 2021’s Saved By a Song: The Art and Healing Power of Songwriting, a combination autobiography and songwriting lessons.
“I teach songwriting quite a bit and work with adults in learning the art form,” Gauthier said. “The book is a memoir, but also goes into my understanding and take on songwriting. I’m just unpacking the side of songwriting that is more of an art than a commercial enterprise. The art is intrinsically connected to some healing, some kind of transcendence, some kind of alchemy. Using music and song for healing is a part of my story, along with finding out it’s working really well.”
Mary Gauthier will be appearing with Jaimee Harris on September 26 at the People’s Pub Bayport, 291 Bayport Ave., Bayport. For more information, visit www.peoplespubbayport.com or call 631-205-6401.
