PREVIEW: Mary Gauthier Celebrates 20 Years of Mercy Now in Spencertown
07/12 @ St. Peter’s Presbyterian Church, Spencertown
Photos by Chad Cochran
“That’s where I come from, old-school troubadour-ing, where you sing the news… but it’s the news with a moral center.”
A barstool, an acoustic guitar, and a singer with a story to tell. It’s old-school troubadoring, with a sense of humor and urgency. Few contemporary artists capture this genre with more finesse and authenticity than Grammy-nominated folk singer-songwriter and author Mary Gauthier, who arrives at the St. Peter’s Presbyterian Church in Spencertown on Sunday, July 12, hosted by the Spencertown Academy Arts Center.
“There’s a call to looking around and seeing what’s happening, and putting it into a melody so that there’s a way for future generations to see what happened,” observes Gauthier. “This is the school of Woody Guthrie. That’s where I come from, old-school troubadour-ing, where you sing the news… but it’s the news with a moral center.”
Gauthier seems like a character out of one of her songs, the mystical folk singer with the wise intonations about life. In reality, she’s grounded; it’s her attachment to writing about humanity that keeps her connected to her inspirations like Guthrie and the community that actively supports her.
“I’ve always been drawn to the stories of the people who are underdogs, who are being silenced, who are being mistreated,” she says. “My heart just goes there. Since I was a little kid, that’s been a part of me. When I became a songwriter, it was just natural that this was the type of song that I was going to write.”
Like so much of her work that dwells on social inequality, Gauthier’s newest single, ‘Soldier of Fortune’, is an anti-ICE protest song, grappling with the injustice and cruelty she’s seen unfolding. “It happened before, now it’s happening again, just like it did in the past,” sings Mary Gauthier with a raspy, ominous intonation.
“‘Soldier of Fortune’ takes a stand that there were many different eras where there were abuses of power and people given government authority to do horrible things,” she elaborates about the song. “We’re living through a time of that right now. Putting it into context is a way of illuminating the reality of how this isn’t coming out of nowhere. There’s a long history of this.”
Attendees at the upcoming show in Spencertown can hear ‘Soldier of Fortune’ and the first titular single off her new album, Reckoning. ‘Reckoning’, which will be released on July 10, is another chapter in the story Gauthier continues to tell about the fraught social and political climate in America — she feels that a reckoning is coming, bringing with it positive change.
“A ‘reckoning’ is sudden and immediate, having to deal with reality and the truth,” explains Gauthier about the album and single. “I think a reckoning is coming, and I want a reckoning because it can set things right.”
As the Spencertown concert weaves its folklore, the night will center around a special album for Gauthier: Mercy Now. Celebrating its 20th anniversary, Mercy Now is a testament to her intrinsically unique voice and recognizable body of work. She admits that she doesn’t like to look back, but in some ways Mercy Now is even more relevant than when it was first released.
What makes the album so enduring? She boils it down to a word: truth.
“The truth remains over time,” she reflects. “The truth about what it means to be human is constant, and I think I captured some of that in Mercy Now. In a way, it’s a validation, because I didn’t know if I had or not when I put that record out. I didn’t even know that was what I was trying to do. The good news to me is that I think I did it.”
In the world of folk music, time is just a concept — there is no timeframe on a powerful piece of writing that matches the mood and atmosphere of the culture surrounding it. Gauthier jokes that while 20 years once felt like an eternity in her youth, in reality, it has flown by.
“As you age, your perception of time shifts,” she notes. “It was 20 years ago, and it was a different world, a different country, and we're up against different issues and problems — a different darkness, or maybe the same darkness with a different way of manifesting itself. What I’m kind of amazed by is how if you really nail your song, it doesn’t exist in time; it follows along and stays relevant.”
Gauthier is still astounded by Mercy Now’s singularity. “There’s a convergence that has to happen,” she says. “It can’t be manufactured. Soldier of Future and the songs I’m putting on a new record in September — that’s another convergence, and it’s as exciting to me as the convergence that happened for Mercy Now.”
When artists approach Gauthier, looking to recreate Mercy Now, Gauthier is honest when she tells them that she wouldn’t even know how to reformulate such an individual album. She believes that it can’t be repackaged; she can only chase that feeling of ‘convergence’ again.
“The universe aligns in a way that the artist is just trying to be a lightning rod and conduct the electricity that's out there,” says Gauthier. “Sometimes you get it, and sometimes you don't, but when you do get it, you know it. It's not a given. It's a gift.”
For the Spencertown concert, Gauthier will be joined onstage by Jamiee Harris, who, according to NPR Music, is “poised to become the next queen of Americana-Folk.” Harris’ gift for harmonies and guitar tie in seamlessly with Gauthier’s own style of folk.
“We’re both troubadours and storytellers,” says Gauthier. “The songs are driven by morality, a belief in right and wrong, false and true, and human dignity. We come to each town that we play with a sense of wanting to connect with people around these things. We’ve been doing this together for eight years, and we’re really compatible. Jamiee’s songs and stories are extraordinary. I’m lucky to have her with me.”
While focusing heavily on the anniversary of Mercy Now, the concert will also span Gauthier’s career. One era bleeds into the next, creating a much larger motif. “I’m going to play everything,” she promises. “We’re going to have a little of this and that to shape it like a big, long story. Then we’re going to bring you to the time we’re living in right now.”
From Mercy Now to ‘Soldier of Fortune’ to Reckoning, these hard-fought morals run through her work. “That thread is the spirit that fuels me, the thing that is behind my eyes and in my heart,” says Gauthier. “It’s the best part of who I am. It’s going to be in my songs forever.”
For tickets and more information, visit https://spencertownacademy.org.