Mary Gauthier

Mary Gauthier
Mary Gauthier in 2006
Background information
Born	11 March 1962 (1962-03-11) (age 49) New Orleans, Louisiana United States
Genres	Folk, Alternative country, Americana
Occupations	Songwriter, Musician, Restaurateur
Instruments	Vocals, Guitar
Years active	1990–present
Labels	Razor and Tie,
Website	marygauthier.com

Mary Gauthier (pronounced /ˈɡoʊʃeɪ/ goh-shay; born March 11, 1962) is an American folk singer-songwriter.

Life and career

Gauthier was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. Given up at birth by a mother she never knew, Gauthier was adopted by an Italian Catholic couple in Thibodaux, Louisiana.^[1] At age 15, she ran away from home, and spent the next several years in drug rehabilitation, halfway houses, and living with friends; she spent her 18th birthday in a jail cell.^[2] Struggling to deal with being adopted and her sexuality, she used drugs and alcohol.^[2] These experiences provided fodder for her songwriting later on. Spurred on by friends, she enrolled at Louisiana State University as a philosophy major, dropping out during her senior year. After attending the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts, she opened a Cajun restaurant in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, Dixie Kitchen (also the eponymous title of her first album).^[3] Mary ran, and cooked at, the restaurant for eleven years. She was arrested for drunk driving opening night, July 12, 1990, and has been sober ever since. After achieving sobriety, she was driven to dedicate herself full-time to songwriting, and embarked upon a career in music. She wrote her first song at age 35.^[4]

She sold her share in the restaurant to finance her second album, Drag Queens in Limousines, in 1998.^[3] The summer of the release of this album, she was invited to play 11 major folk festivals, including the Newport Folk Festival. Drag Queens in Limousines won in The 1st Annual Independent Music Awards for Best Folk/Singer-Songwriter Song, and she was nominated for Best New Artist of the year by the Boston Music Awards. She was nominated for three GLAMA awards ( Gay and Lesbian American Music Awards) and won best country artist of the year. In 2002 her third album,"Filth and Fire" was named "Best Indy CD of the year" by Jon Pareles of The New York Times, in 2002. She moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 2001 and secured a publishing deal with Harlan Howard Songs, then secured a record deal with Lost Highway , a division of Universal Music, in 2003. Her first major label release, in 2005, Mercy Now was on the top 10 list for the year in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Daily News, and Billboard Magazine. She was awarded "New Artist of the Year" by The Americana Music Association the same year. Mercy Now was voted the #6 Record of the Decade by No Depression Magazine. Her second Lost Highway release, "Between Daylight and Dark" appeared in September 2007. She has had her songs recorded by numerous artists, including Jimmy Buffett, Tim McGraw, Blake Shelton, Bill Chambers and Candi Staton. Her latest release is called The Foundling and was released by Razor and Tie Records in 2010. It was named the #3 Record of the Year in the LA Times by music writer Randy Lewis.

Discography

• Dixie Kitchen (1997)
• Drag Queens in Limousines (1999)
• Filth and Fire (2002)
• Mercy Now (2005)
• Between Daylight and Dark (2007)
• Genesis (The Early Years) ( 2008) - 15 track compilation from the 1st three albums
• The Foundling (2010)
• "The Foundling Alone" (2011) Acoustic Demo's of songs in development, from The Foundling

References

1. ^ Gold, Scott (June 12, 2008), "Change of tune", Los Angeles Times, http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=695464&category=ARTS&newsdate=6/12/2008, retrieved January 27, 2010 
2. ^ ^{a b} Reighley, Kurt B. (March 29, 2005), "Singing her stories", The Advocate: 65, http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=-GMEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA65, retrieved January 27, 2010 
3. ^ ^{a b} Tucker, Karen Iris (83), "Mary, quite contrary", The Advocate, http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=l2MEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA83, retrieved January 27, 2010 
4. ^ Alarik, Scott (October 7, 2005), "Truth be told — Mary Gauthier doesn't shy away from her past", The Boston Globe, http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2005/10/07/truth_be_told/, retrieved January 27, 2010 

External links

• Official website
• Gauthier's Lost Highway webpage

Awards
Preceded by Mindy Smith	AMA New/Emerging Artist Of The Year 2005	Succeeded by The Greencards

Persondata
Name	Gauthier, Mary
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	March 11, 1962
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death