Mary Gauthier – The Foundling
Tracks: 13
www.marygauthier.com
Singer songwriter Mary Gauthier is revered among songwriters – fact. Her gift lies in going to those dark places of life and the soul, whilst keeping the light shining through it. Her new release The Foundling is no different, despite going to her own personal dark places. She says of this CD, “I was born to an unwed mother in 1962 and subsequently surrendered to St. Vincent's Women and Infants Asylum on Magazine Street in New Orleans, where I spent my first year. I was adopted shortly thereafter but left my adopted family at fifteen. I wandered for years looking for, but never quite finding a place that felt like home. I searched for, found, and was denied a meeting with my birth mother when I was 45 years old. She couldn't afford to re-open the wound she'd carried her whole life, the wound of surrendering a baby. The Foundling is my story.”
The production on the CD is by Michael Timmins of Cowboy Junkies, needless to say he does her more than justice. In truth, the CD is anything but easy to listen to, dominated for the most part by dominated by the halfsung-half spoken March 11, 1962, which chronicles her heartbreaking telephopne conversation with her birth mother, who refused to meet her. This, however, is balanced, slightly, by the more optimistic The Orphan King and the upbeat Goodbye, which was actually first recorded eight years ago. The latter song has an almost bluegrass sound and is quite stunning, as is Another Day Borrowed, in which she tells us that despite it all she’s ‘hanging on.’
I actually found the first time I listened, I had to switch it off, read the lyrics in the booklet, then listen again, as a way to get beyond the incredibly sombre tone of the CD and appreciate the remarkable story Guathier is telling. Her story.
I certainly don’t think this is the CD for first time listeners of Mary Gauthier and suspect that it will appeal more to her longtime fans, who want to learn more about her and her life. Sad it may be, but kudos to her; how many singer songwriters bare their souls and put the intimate details of their life out there for all to hear?
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