Mary Gauthier

From a Boston kitchen to Nashville

Mary Veronica Gauthier was born on March 11, 1962 in New Orleans. She studied philosophy at LSU, left in her senior year, trained at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts and opened the Cajun restaurant Dixie Kitchen in Boston's Back Bay on July 12, 1990. Wikipedia dates the start of her serious songwriting to about 32, while a 2006 North Bay Bohemian interview has her writing a first song at 35. Her debut Dixie Kitchen came out in 1997 and Drag Queens in Limousines in 1999, which led to dates at eleven major folk festivals including Newport. She moved to Nashville in 2001 and signed a publishing deal with Harlan Howard Songs.

Filth and Fire (2002, produced by Gurf Morlix) was named best independent CD of the year by the New York Times's Jon Pareles. Lost Highway, run by Luke Lewis, signed her after Melanie Howard, the widow of Harlan Howard, brought him to a Bluebird Cafe show; Ray Wylie Hubbard introduced her to Morlix, per the Houston Press. Mercy Now followed in 2005, and she was named Emerging Artist of the Year by the Americana Music Association that year. Between Daylight and Dark (2007) was also on Lost Highway; The Foundling (2010, Razor and Tie), a concept record about identity and adoption, reached 13 on Billboard's Americana chart, and Trouble and Love (2014) reached 22.

Rifles and Rosary Beads (2018), co-written with veterans and their families, won the Folk Alliance International Record of the Year and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Folk Album. She published the memoir Saved by a Song through St. Martin's Press, dated 2021 on Wikipedia and 2023 by FolkWorks, released Dark Enough to See the Stars in 2022, and teaches songwriting workshops. Her official site lists Soldier of Fortune and Reckoning in 2026. Songs of hers have been recorded by Blake Shelton ("I Drink") and Tim McGraw.