It might seem that
after six groundbreaking albums of original songs, more than a dozen years
of recording and touring around the world, a harvest of music industry
awards, and covers of her songs by a roster of great artists
—
that Mary Gauthier
(go-shay) should have a handle on some of the big answers.
Yet with each new album, with each old and new set of characters and life
changes she introduces, Mary is always ending up with more questions. Where
do her people come from and where do they go? How can they find shelter from
the storm?
A sense of autobiography has always loomed large in Mary’s work. On her
newest release, The Foundling, her first concept album, she opens the
door on the emotional journey and aftermath of finding the mother who
surrendered her in New Orleans after her birth in March 1962.
On The Foundling, Mary explains, “the songs tell the story of a kid
abandoned at birth who spent a year in an orphanage and was adopted, who ran
way from the adopted home and ended up in show business, who searched for
birth parents late in life and found one and was rejected, and who came
through the other side of all of this still believing in love.” Mary’s
“compass” was Red Headed Stranger, Willie Nelson’s classic country
concept album of 1975.
Written and recorded over the course of two years, The Foundling was
produced in Toronto by Michael Timmins of Cowboy Junkies fame, employing the
talents of crack local musicians and his sister Margo Timmins on vocal
harmonies.
With songs ranging from the Gypsy-flavored opening of “The Foundling” to the
upbeat bluegrass groove of the bittersweet “Good Bye,” this release further
solidifies Mary’s reputation as an artist deemed both worthy of assuming the
mantle of Johnny Cash by The New York Daily News and in the same
league as Bruce Springsteen and Steve Earle by The Boston Globe. Mary
appears on a double bill with Mindy Smith.
