Sherpa's Wonderin's

Mary Gauthier

About a week ago, I received an e-mail from Lost Highway Records saying that Mary Gauthier had new tour dates. I idly glanced down the list and saw that she was going to be at the Iota in Clarendon (Arlington, VA) Thursday night. I asked Jason and Kell if they wanted to go and sent them a couple of “samples” of MG.

I learned of Mary Gauthier this winter. Lost Highway sent me an e-mail with a link to stream her song “Mercy Now” and I think I listened to it 3-4 times that day. Soon after NPR did an article about her with stream links to 2-3 songs and I was hooked. Needless to say, Mercy Now is a staple cd that I’ve been listening to regularly since May.

Mary is a singer-songwriter from Baton Rouge, LA. She was adopted when she was one, grew up to parents in an unhappy marriage, lived off the streets, battled drug and alcohol addiction, turned 18 behind bars, emerged from darkness, and won notice as a respected restaurateur. She didn’t write her first song until she was 35, after she became sober. As she says about her life, "I know in my heart that I should be dead. Most of my friends are dead. The way I lived, I had no respect at all for my own life. So I'm living on borrowed time -- and there's liberation in that."

The Iota is a quaint cozy club tucked in Clarendon, that continues to give Clarendon neighborhood charm (as opposed to the new Pottery Barn, Cheesecake Factory, etc etc ). The café is sectioned off from the bar, where a different lineup of up and coming country/folk and Indy musicians perform nightly. Mary let her music do her talking mostly, but as she is a singer/songwriter-she’s a genuine storyteller as well, not to mention witty. What a great show.

Oh, and I was asked if I would rather buy a table at Pottery Barn or halfline soccer tickets. The answer is……the table. Soccer tickets only last for 90 minutes and good furniture last forever. Or at least for 10-20 years…

Link to a couple of songs and the npr story this spring.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4539873