Mary Gauthier — Lost & Found
You know the old Ronnie Milsap line — “It was almost like a song, but it was much too sad to write”?
Mary Gauthier wrote it anyway.
Let me add my endorsement of Gauthier’s new album, The Foundling, to Doug Heselgrave’s ND review. In recounting her own childhood as an orphan and the search for her mother, Gauthier goes way out on a tightrope, telling her story straight from the shoulder, without sentimentality or self-pity — miscalculations that would have been forgiven, given the subject matter.
You’ll come away admiring Gauthier’s courage in living this story, and respect her fearless achievement in relating it in such compelling, accessible fashion. Good time music, this is not. But it’s hard to imagine a contemporary singer-songwriter going deeper than Gauthier does on these 13 songs and everyday empathy requires one to hope that, in recounting her personal ordeal, Gauthier has lightened her considerable load.
A share of credit is owed to Cowboy Junkie Michael Timmins, who produced The Foundling and does a job similar to the haunted vibe he achieved on Lee Harvey Osmond’s A Quiet Evil and the Junkies’ own new LP, Renmin Park. He is making a strong case for himself as one of the most sensitive, sympathetic producers operating in contemporary music.
The Foundling is released May 18 via Razor & Tie, but it can be downloaded now through her website.