he Jeanne Wagner Theatre in downtown Salt Lake City provided a relaxing evening of great music and casual mingling for many Salt Lake residents on Saturday, Sept. 6.

Alternative-country singer/songwriter Mary Gauthier (pronounced Go-Shay) traveled to Salt Lake City to perform at a fund-raising benefit for local radio station KRCL. The radio station is a non-profit, volunteer-driven, community radio station that receives financial support from its listeners.

The RED Interview
Gauthier was more than happy to perform for free. “I’ve got a real good connection with that radio station. They have been playing me for three years now,” Gauthier says. “The kind of music I write and play will never ever be on commercial radio. The big corporate guys don’t play this kind of stuff anymore and I don’t know if they ever did. It’s just not gonna be there. So I’m really happy with the small stations. I just love ’em.”

Mary Gauthier is an individual whom one cannot help but admire. Driven by motivation and a love for what she does, Gauthier walked away from the restaurant business more than three years ago and moved to Nashville to pursue a career in music. In just three short years, Gauthier has already released her third CD, Filth and Fire, which has received rave reviews from a wide variety of critics. “If I’ve done my best and I’ve worked really hard on the writing and made sure that it’s the best I can do, then I just have to live with the results. And lucky for me, this time out they really liked it. I just call it as I see it and write the best possible songs that I can for me. I try to be honest and I try to be real, and the critics just seem to latch on to it,” she said.

Regarding her current CD, Gauthier thinks, “The subject matter is a little heavy and the characters—a lot of them are in trouble and in difficult situations.” Unsure of what made this album so much more successful than her first two, Gauthier is excited about the positive response and eager to create more music.

Gauthier’s live performances prove to be an entertaining evening for almost any individual. It doesn’t matter what the foundation for a person’s musical taste is, one has no choice but to appreciate Gauthier for what she has done and the stories that she tells through her music.

Gauthier strolled onto the stage with her guitar still in its case. After setting the stage for her performance, Gauthier told a little about herself. She is 40 years old now, and nearly a virgin to success in the music world. Though fresh into the music scene at an older age, Gauthier is still able to give people a unique performance.

The artist has as much skill in comedy as she does singing. Between pieces she would tell stories that inspired songs. Most of the stories were strangely humorous. The story of her song “Camelot Motel” was quite entertaining, and allowed the audience to sneak into her experiences, understanding the song at a deeper level than just hearing it without any background information.

Though Gauthier is recognized as an alternative-country singer, her music has a folk edge to it. Gauthier is not the producer of lazy lyrics that center around a cowboy’s loss of his beloved dog down at the farm or the story of a huge-ass pick-up truck that drives women wild. The music is far more advanced than many of the celebrated Nashville stars. The lyrics are meaningful, and her voice beautifully tells the story of troubled people, even her own experiences and problems with alcohol. Her powerfully mature voice enchants the listener, creating an interesting world. The musician admits that her music contains “a lot of truth and a lot of fiction in all of it. There’s part of it that’s me and part of it that’s not. I don’t know where I start and where the characters start. It’s not a line you can draw.”

Gauthier’s ability to create stories within her music enables her talent to stand out. Just as she’s uncertain where she is in her music, the listener is uncertain of whether or not the story is true, whether or not it is Gauthier’s experience. This is what makes her music so attractive to listeners. They are good, solid stories sung by a woman who has a racy past that qualifies her to tell the stories.

Heading toward her fourth year in the business, Gauthier plans to tour until October, when she will take a break in Austin to record her fourth album. Following the completion of her next album, she will pick up her guitar and head out on tour again, fulfilling a dream she had by working a job she loves.
autumn@red-mag.com