Mary Gauthier is on her way back to Alberta this summer for a show in Calgary, and festival appearances in Canmore, Edmonton, and Grande Prairie. The Grammy-nominated folk and Americana artist can’t hide her excitement.
“It’s been a long time, and I’m so ready to be up there!” she exclaims.
Gauthier has had a long career, and finds it hard to believe that her 1999 album, Drag Queens in Limousines, is now 26 years old. “Let’s not ponder it,” she laughs. She’s grateful for the longevity, though. “It means that 26 years have gone by, and there’s still an interest in my music. These songs still bring cheers when I play them. When a songwriter sits down to write a song, we want to write something that’s going to last. That’s the hope. I want to write something that resonates.”
Gauthier calls becoming a full-time musician “one of the most frightening things I’ve ever done.” She had a vibrant Cajun restaurant in Boston called Dixie Kitchen, but sold it in 2000 and moved to Nashville. “People were looking at me like I had lost my mind, to walk away from that success and go into music. But I’ve never looked back. I’ve been a professional musician for 25 years.”
One song in particular has taken on new meanings over the decades. “Mercy Now,” from the 2005 album of the same name, mentions family members, church, country, and finally “every single one of us” as being in need of mercy. It’s specific and personal, but also astonishingly broad and timeless.
“That song is now 20 years old, and it meant one thing at the time. We had gone to war, or America had started a war, and I was in opposition to that. I kept the song general, so that it could move through time. I didn’t really know what it meant, or what it would come to mean. I would never have imagined where we sit now, and what those words mean today.”
Gauthier adds that the song will have a special performance in Edmonton on August 10. “I’m deeply honoured to announce that Terry Wickham has asked me to play that song before ‘Four Strong Winds’ at the closing of the Edmonton Folk Festival this year. ‘Four Strong Winds’ is one the greatest songs ever written. It’s a really important song in the Canadian songbook, so being asked to step up right before it means a lot to me.”
Gauthier and her partner, Jaimee Harris, will be on stage together for the Alberta performances. They’ll rent an SUV when their plane lands, because they have a lot of gear and merch to haul around. “I have boxes of vinyl and books and some T-shirts, so we put it all in the vehicle and head down the road. Jaimee and I take care of all of that ourselves.”
She adds, “What I’m looking forward to is re-connecting with audiences there. CKUA has been very kind to me. They’ve introduced me to thousands and thousands of listeners, through multiple shows. I’m so happy that it’s still happening, and that I can re-connect with fans. I’m super excited to have these tour dates this summer.”
Mary Gauthier will perform at Canmore Folk Fest, Edmonton Folk Fest, Bear Creek Folk Fest, and also at the Ironwood Stage & Grill in Calgary this August. Find details at marygauthier.com
This performance of “Mercy Now” is from 2018.
