Arts
Pride Around The World Calendar 2003
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Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary
Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary:
Country Folksinger Mary Guatheir Sings in a Post-Gay World
Interview by Tom Bivins
Northern Vermont will be treated to the folk and country sounds of singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier, a native of Thibodeaux, Louisiana. She will be appearing on June 10 at “Higher Ground” in Burlington as opening act for The Guy Clark Band. Her most recent album Filth and Fire was named by The New York Times as the “best independent CD of 2002.” She has been reviewed in The Advocate for her groundbreaking CD Drag Queens and Limousines, and has been profiled on National Public Radio.
Mary and I are old friends from high school, roommates and co-workers during college. She has always played the guitar and she has an amazing voice. And of course, if I were a lesbian, I’d fall madly in love with her ÷ she’s a beautiful woman. As a gay man, I’m drawn to her bravado, strength of character and sensitivity. Still, even I was surprised by the depth of feeling, emotional maturity and beauty of the stories in her songs. The songs are filled with strong emotions, perceptive insight and surprising honesty.
I caught up with her on the last night of her tour in Amsterdam before she left for a concert in Paris. I asked about her current tour.
“Amsterdam is great! It’s this really happy, gay city. Being gay is no big deal. I feel normal walking around holding my girlfriend’s hand.” She goes to Europe at least twice a year where she has found success and developed a gay following in Belgium, Holland and Germany, even making the covers of gay/lesbian German magazines.
I asked her about her success and fan base in Europe. “They appreciate the words to the songs and listen hard to the songs.” Gauthier has even experienced celebrity adulation in Europe with fans mobbing her at concerts. It’s uncomfortable, something she’s not accustomed to in the U.S. Her success in Europe has provided several unique opportunities including a recent tour of the vaults of the Vincent van Gogh Museum where she read and held the unfinished letter written by van Gogh to his brother, found in his pocket after his suicide.
Regarding her songs on Filth and Fire, her third CD, Gauthier reflected, “All the songs are autobiographical and based in experience. Songs I’ve tried to write that aren’t based on my life just don’t ring true. They don’t feel or sound right·. I think the people who like my songs can hear the truth – it’s real for them.”
Her lyrics and music are evocative of John Prine and Bob Dylan, two major influences. She has been compared to Lucinda Williams and Patty Larkin by music journalists and radio deejays. Asked about “Camelot Motel,” one of the grittier songs on the album, Gauthier explained, “It’s a composite of real incidents I’ve experienced in my life – drug dealers, gay friends who’ve met partners in chat rooms and ended up in motels, even touring alone.”
About the very moving song “Good-Bye,” Gauthier explained, “Some people think it’s a sad song, but I think it’s just the life I live. I don’t think of it as sad, just matter of fact.” With lyrics like ÎGood-bye should have been my last name,’ it seems like a tough, matter-of-fact life.
My personal favorite on the CD is “Sugar Cane” about the sugar industry in Louisiana and its effect on the communities where sugar cane is grown. The song evokes memories of my Louisiana heritage with lyrics like ÎThe soot and ash are falling like a dark and deadly snow/ The air is full of poison to the Gulf of Mexico/ Dirty air, dirty laundry, dirty money, dirty rain/ A dirty deal with the devil, burning the sugar cane.’
We spoke of gay art and Gauthier mused, “Remember when we paid for concert tickets to see an artist who might be gay, or read books because it had gay content – even if it wasn’t very good? We accepted inferior art because it was gay. I think we are in a post-gay period where the art is more important than the gay movement. Gay art now transcends the ghetto. I can be accepted as an artist, not just a Îgay’ artist. I think that was the whole point of the movement.”
Gauthier is an out lesbian artist living in Nashville where she finds her sexuality isn’t a big deal. Most music journalists don’t ask and if they do, Mary has treated it “as a matter of fact and that leaves nothing to talk about. I mean it’s pretty obvious. There isn’t any big mystery. And after they’ve asked the sexuality question, what’s left to ask? Since I’m part of the second or third wave of out lesbian/gay artist, it’s not even an interesting topic anymore.” She feels a deep debt of gratitude to those who came out before.
“The odd thing is that my biggest fans in the States are cowboys. My music seems to appeal to them. I guess they understand what I’m saying in my songs... about love, about women, about life.”
Mary Gauthier will be appearing at Higher Ground on June 10. In the fall she will be returning to the Nashville studio to cut a new CD.
Tom Bivins lives and listens to music in Bethel and during his commute to his work at NECI.