Nashville based singer songwriter Mary Gauthier is a renegade. She has always done things her way and always will. Her songs are populated by a cast of outsiders, down and outers — people living on the fringes of society, much like the characters in a Fred Eaglesmith or Ray Wylie Hubbard song — renegades and outsiders.
“That’s where all of the interesting stories are. Who wants to hear about a winner? That would be boring,” said the straight talking Gauthier from her home.
I’m interested in the struggle — people who have the strength to get up out of bed in the morning no matter what happens. What it is that people have that makes them do that and why everybody doesn’t have it,” she said.
She will be coming to the Slice, July 9 with Scott Nolan and Joanna Miller, who have been playing with her for the past year and a half. She met them at the Island Folk Festival on Vancouver Island and found an instant connection.
“They’ve been together for 14 years. They have a great ability to work a song together. They are great listeners,” she enthused.
“Scott and Joanne will do their own set, then they’ll be my band,” she said adding while Scott Nolan likes to turn things up and rock, it will be a little bit of that.
“ There won’t be a lot of that,” she said.
She just released her first live CD, though she isn’t necessarily touring in support of it.
“ I live to tour, like Fred Eaglesmith. It’s just what I do. There is a cycle for most musicians, they write and record an album, then tour on it, then take some time off, then write another album. I’m constantly touring in support of all of my albums,” she said.
She got a late start as a songwriter.
“I didn’t start to write until I was in my 30s. I needed to mature. I needed to grow up. And because my songs are pretty introspective, I needed to get that way,” she said.
Her life’s path has taken her from growing up in an orphanage, into the throes of addiction, recovered from it, she owned a restaurant in Louisiana and has since recorded six critically acclaimed albums and written songs that have earned praise from Bob Dylan and Tom Waits and been recorded by Jimmy Buffett, Blake Shelton, Boy George and many others.
She immediately caught the ear of some well known folk/ roots musicians like Fred Eaglesmith and Ray Wylie Hubbard.
“I opened for Fred when I first started. He’s a dear friend and he‘s a genius, she enthused raving similarly about Austin songwriter Ray Wylie Hubbard, who is best known for the song “Redneck Mother.”
“I’ve got some dates coming up with Ray. He’s a dear friend of mine. He’s a lot like Fred . He’s a renegade,” she continued adding all three of their songs celebrate renegades. She noted they are renegades who live their lives and musical careers on their own terms.
“People like Joni Mitchell, I’ve got a great deal of respect for. She’ll say ‘I’ll produce my own album thank you very much,’” she said adding that has inspired her to produce her own album.
“I’m contemplating it. I’m almost ready to do that but it is a colossal challenge,” she said.
The characters in her songs are a conglomeration of personal experience, people she’s met and people she made up mixed with books she’s read as there are also many literary allusions in her songs.
“ The writing process starts with a moment of inspiration and it’s followed up with a lot of hard work,” she described.
“I love to read. I’m reading a book on celebrated Canadian painter Emily Carr right now. I’ll read anything – literature, biographies, fiction, non-fiction. But it’s hard to keep up with it,” she said.
The show begins at 9 p.m. July 9 at the Slice. Tickets are $20.