“How You Learn To Live Alone' by Mary and Gretchen Peters sung by Jonathan Jackson (“Avery” on the ABC-TV show “Nashville”) will appear on the soundtrack for Season 2 of the “Nashville” cast soundtrack. The album was produced by Buddy Miller and will be released on December 10. To read more about The Music of Nashville: Original Soundtrack Season 2, Volume 1 and see the track listing, click here.
Wally Lamb and Louisiana Book Festival
I’m headed to Baton Rouge in two weeks to present a writing workshop on Nov. 1 at The Louisiana Book Festival. On Nov. 2 Wally Lamb will introduce me to the audience and we’ll get to work together for the first time. I am a huge fan of his, and I’m counting the days till this one! My workshop is on Friday Nov. 1 from 9-4, on on Saturday Nov. 2 I perform on the music stage from 11:14-12:00, and my conversation with Wally is 2:15-3:00.
Here are a couple of previews from Deep South Magazine: The New Orleans Songwriter That Inspired Wally Lamb and In The Car With Mary Gauthier
If you're in Baton Rouge on November 1-2, I'd love to see you!
You Don’t Know Me: Rediscovering Eddy Arnold
In Age Of Tributes To Country Badboys, Album Memorializes Smooth Singing Eddy Arnold
Eddy Arnold in the early 1950s. He grew up the son of a West Tennessee sharecropper, helping on the farm and performing at Pinson High School events. It’s claimed he often arrived for those gigs by mule with a guitar strapped to his back.
Shannon Pollard hasn’t changed a thing in his grandfather’s office since the death of Eddy Arnold five years ago. Stacks of CDs and Arnold’s lifetime achievement Grammy share the space with blueprints and real estate maps. But along with the physical artifacts come many good memories.
“He would sit here and play his own records,” Pollard says. “I’d sit on the couch, and he’d sit in his chair and a lot of times he might fall asleep actually, which was kind of funny. And then he’d wake up and be like, ‘Oh, that sounded really good!’”
Although Pollard and his grandfather shared a love for music, they didn’t always see eye to eye. As when Pollard was 19, and played some recordings of his first band for his “Daddy Ed.”
“He did listen to the whole thing,” Pollard says, “and listened attentively, and then he looked at me and he said, ‘Y’all need to cut your hair and learn how to play something that somebody wants to listen to.’ That wasn’t what we wanted to hear, but he was right!”
Eddy Arnold in RCA Studio B during the mid-1960s. Many of his hits were recorded in the legendary space, and several songs on the tribute album were, as well.
From Tennessee Plowboy to Countrypolitan Superstar
Beginning his career in the 1940s, Eddy Arnold was the king of the hillbilly crooners, and one of the first country artists to regularly crossover to the pop charts. In a career that stretched across seven decades, he racked up over 140 chart hits. His smooth velvety vocals helped build the Nashville Sound, while his successful real estate dealings built the Music City. By the 1960s, he had marked a trail that many mainstream country artists seeking crossover success still follow today, even if they’ve never heard an Eddy Arnold record.
Many country legends have become heroes in the Americana field where country often mixes with a punk rock attitude – an outlook that has pulled artists like the Louvin Brothers and Wanda Jackson from the dustbins of seeming obscurity. For many of these artists, a hellraising reputation, whether on records or in real life, is what first attracts attention, but in Eddy Arnold’s case, being a successful business and family man is hardly the stuff of outlaw legends.
“I’ve always been intrigued by the fact that his music was a little bit overlooked in the last few years,” Pollard says, “just because of not having that bad boy cache that the Hank Williams or the Johnny Cashes of country music had. But I felt like there was some really great material that was being overlooked.”
Punks with a Mission – Shannon Pollard and Cheetah Chrome at the Opry. Chrome chose to perform ‘What Is Life Without Love,’ which was a number one hit for Arnold in 1946. Credit: Pete Mroz
That’s How Much I Love You
With a plan in mind, Pollard approached another of his musical heroes, Cheetah Chrome, former guitarist for the seminal 1970s punk rock band The Dead Boys. “One of the first things that became clear to me was how much how much his grandfather meant to him,” Chrome says. “We talked about doing a tribute record and I was like this is a project I could enjoy because we’re talking about some good music here, and it’s a labor of love.”
Although Chrome knew who Arnold was, he wasn’t that familiar with his music. He began a crash course of listening and soon re-discovered his own familial connection to the songs of Eddy Arnold. “The first thing that hit me was like wow, I remember this stuff,” Chrome says. “My mom used to play this stuff. My mom used to sing along to this. I used to hear this on the radio when I was a kid.”
“His voice was just so good,” Chrome says. “The records were just so well recorded, and the players were so good. When you’re a kid you don’t appreciate that.”
Mary Gauthier’s recording of ‘You Don’t Know Me’ is only the latest in a string of covers of the Eddy Arnold hit. Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and Diana Krall all took a turn with it; Ray Charles had a number one hit with the song. Credit: Anna O’Connor
Eddy’s Songs
Whether the austere hillbilly swing of his early recordings or the lush pop sound of his 1960s hits, the unifying thread of all of Eddy Arnold’s music was a great artist putting his personal stamp on great songs. Using that idea as inspiration, You Don’t Know Me: Rediscovering Eddy Arnold features Americana and indie rock artists putting their personal stamp on classic songs.
Some, like folk singer Mary Gauthier, followed that theme by delivering an intensely personal take, as Gauthier does on her cover of the title track. While others, like nouveau hillbilly musician Chris Scruggs, drew inspiration from Arnold’s originals and mixed in some rock’n’roll as Scruggs does on his driving, but still swinging version of “Just a Little Lovin’ (Will Go a Long Way.” Others took their songs in dramatically different directions from the originals as with southern rockers The Bluefields’ cover of “That’s How Much I Love You” or Bobby Bare, Jr’s take on “Make the World Go Away.”
“Every song grew legs in the studio,” Chrome says in regards to the varied approaches to Arnold’s music on the album. A diversity that Pollard hopes will drive people’s curiosity about the original versions.
“Hopefully, what a successful tribute record,” Pollard says, “or rediscovery, or whatever you want to call it does is you listen to this contemporary version and you go, ‘Oh, I really do want to go back and pick up the original record.’”
As for what his grandfather’s might have thought of the album, Pollard is sure he would have had own opinions and wouldn’t have been shy about expressing them. “There have been a few moments where I thought he would’ve absolutely killed me for some of this,” Pollard says. “But it’s all very respectful and the arrangements are fresh and cool, so given that, yeah, artistically he may have taken me to task, but he would have gotten the whole mission. If it took this direction to get there, then so be it.”
Proof that one can make great records that people want to hear, even without a haircut.
Review by The Morton Report
Mary Gauthier, Live at Blue Rock. If a knockout emotional punch is what you're looking for, start right here. Mary Gauthier, straight out of Louisana, has been decking listeners for a decade with the kind of songs that can sometimes be so strong it takes a heavyweight to go the distance with her. This is her first live album, and it's the kind of stunner that can only come from someone who's absolutely ready to turn on the heat with a sackful of the very best songs from a stellar catalogue. And Gauthier has that in spades. What she really is is a short story writer who can telegraph entire lives in the matter of a few verses and intriguing chords, then deliver them with the kind of voice capable of tearing our insides in two. There is a simple devastation at the woman's core, no doubt charged by a hard childhood that almost took her all the way down. Finding music, after opening a Cajun restaurant in Boston, opened a door to salvation that the singer stepped through and never looked back. Mary Gauthier's background included characters of the highest and lowest order, and most of them walk through songs like "Our Lady of the Shooting Stars," "Your Sister Cried" and "Drag Queens in Limousines" with their heads held high and their eyes down low. These are serious people, and the person who created them is the most serious of all. She may not be a household name—yet—but Ms. Gauthier is well on her way to musical majesty. Hearing how she paints a room in Wimberley, Texas in haunting colors this night is to discover just how majestic she can be. - By Bill Bentley, Columnist See article HERE.
Americana Gazette reviews "Live At Blue Rock"
American Songwriter: 4 out of 5 stars
American Songwriter gives Live At The Blue Rock 4 out of 5 stars...
This may seem like a counter-intuitive thing to say, but it’s good for Mary Gauthier’s audience that she has real limitations as a singer. Her awareness that her vocal instrument isn’t the most supple one in the world has compelled her to cultivate a rich palette of unconventional vocal shadings, textures and tones, which is part of what makes her such a gripping storyteller.
Despite the fact that Live At Blue Rock contains songs that have already appeared on five of Gauthier’s six studio albums, these renditions feel very different than those she laid down in the studio. This time around, the Louisiana-born, Nashville-based singer-songwriter had people right there in the room with her – the venue is an artists’ ranch in Wimberley, Texas – and their presence makes a palpable difference. You can tell they were on the receiving end of a fiercely focused performance.
Gauthier rejects mainstream entertainment values, the showy mastery, perkiness and polish that aim at providing musical diversion and courting mass popularity. Hers is a confrontational art, especially in a live setting. She directs attention to the unsettling side of contemporary American society, not only by making executed murderers, unrepentant alcoholics and troubled teenage adoptees her lead characters, but by telling their stories in such strenuous, committed fashion.
There’s a penetrating potency to Gauthier’s delivery of these songs, as though she’s daring somebody to challenge her on whether or not the people she chooses to sing about are worthy of attention, and whether she’s really telling the truth about the desperation of their outsider existences. Such a visceral style of performance isn’t typically thought of in terms of virtuosity, but that’s a quality her storytelling often possesses all the same.
Gauthier seems the least invested in introspection about romantic relationships – which is many a modern songwriters’ bread and butter – and when she does go there in her writing, it doesn’t tend to pack quite the punch of her other narrative-unfurling and scene-setting. There are also three Fred Eaglesmith covers in this set, but none of those performances top what she does with her own songs.
Gauthier speaks her lyrics just as often as she sings them, and she uses the contrast between those vocalizations to convey a lot. As she picks up steam during the surging, impressionistic number “Blood Is Blood,” she eventually reaches a point where she intones the song’s title – underscoring how taken-for-granted that three-word statement is – before moaning “Blood don’t wash away” with a high, held-out note, a leap that captures the peculiar pain of being cut off from any and all blood relations. She’s marked off where cozy normalcy ends and isolating idiosyncrasy begins, and the latter standpoint is amplified by Tania Elizabeth’s searingly surreal contributions on fiddle. During the waltz-time number “Karle Faye,” Gauthier sings tenderly of the addict-turned-death row inmate and reserves all her bite for the mercilessness of capital punishment. She performs her snapshot of the alcoholic experience, “I Drink,” with filigreed finger-picking, and sets up the most telling line in the bridge with a pause that plays the speaker’s stubbornness to the hilt; after saying “I don’t,” she waits a full six beats before hissing “give a damn.”
Gauthier’s wry sense of humor is most clearly displayed during “Drag Queens In Limousines” a woozy, explicitly autobiographical waltz that pokes fun at her utter inability to fit in growing up. Musically, she gets the most playful during the album’s funky-folkie final track, “Wheel Inside The Wheel.” She spends the verses colorfully cataloging characters in an otherworldly Mardi Gras scene, but at the chorus she turns into a knowing, nimble blueswoman, moaning here, syncopating there and sounding intensely cool throughout.
Gauthier puts on a show, all right, but it’s not the sort of entertainment that casts the audience in a passive role. Of those who show up – and a devoted bunch they are – she demands engagement, and rewards it. - American Songwriter: By Jewly Hight
Ciara
I just got this wonderful photo from an 8-year-old fan named Ciara, sporting her new Mercy Now T-Shirt, Dog Tag and Necklace and "Live From Blue Rock" CD that she got in time for the last night of Hannukah. Thank you, Ciara, for your smile. It circled right back to me.
CD Baby Success Story
Thank you CD Baby! I am a proud client of CD Baby, have been for over 12 years.
They have been great to work with, they treat musicians with respect and they always pay on time. Whats not to love? Thanks for featuring me as one of your success stories.
(the rest of the story is HERE)
Back on The Road, Again
Hey ya'll, I am on the road again, but not before breaking bread in Nashville with some of my favorite people in the world. Beth Nielson Chapman, John Prine, Sara Seskind and Bonnie Raitt. Sure is great living in music city....Inspirational to be sitting with so many great artists in a room.
I am touring in the deep South right now. We played in Knoxville, Birmingham Alabama and Jackson Mississippi this week, and this weekend we will be in New Orleans and Lafayette. I am touring with Scott Nolan and Joanna Miller from Winnipeg, Manitoba, and we're have a great time out here. Joanna is a fantastic drummer, and Scott's playing piano and guitar, it's a rocking little combo and I hope to keep it going for a while. Here's a nice stage shot from Knoxville, at The Square Room.
In other news, we've added digital downloads to my web site, so all of my CD's can be purchased digitally here, LOOK OUT I TUNES! I figured we'd offer it as a convenience, since so many of us listen to music in a digital format it just makes sense for me to put downloads up next to the CD's.
Well, American Thanksgiving is nearly here,I've been asked for the recipe for the garlic bread we used to serve at my old restaurant, The Dixie Kitchen. So when I get off the road on Monday, I will dig it up and post it here. Maybe a couple other ones too, we had a way with certain things that people still ask about. Lemme see what I've got in my files, I'll pop some great ones up soon. I found this shot, online, of the front of the place...Sure has been a long time! I used to live there, 12 hours a day most days. Gotta say, I prefer the musical road I am travelling now. But the Dixie Kitchen was a great run, ten years of cooking full on Cajun Cuisine for the good folks of Boston. Glad to have done it, glad it is done!
UK/Europe Tour Wraps Up
It was a wonderful three weeks out there on the road, I am tired but didn't want to see it end. From the start, it was one for the ages. Kicked it off with my first time in Denmark, and wrapped it up in Haarlem, the beautiful Dutch city that Harlem, NY, was named after.
Standout's on this tour include the two lovely breakfast's in the sweet hotel in Aarhus, Denmark, performing at the maximum security psychiatric hospital's chapel in Trondheim Norway, playing the Townes Van Zandt tribute festival in Figino Sreanza, Italy and of course the FOOD in Italy.
The wonderful spirit of Ben Glover, who accompanied me and made the adventure so much more fun by joining me on the journey, got a little pale at the end.
I am home for two weeks, and then off again, more travel ahead. As always!
Performing at Italy's Townes Van Zandt Tribute
Someone captured my performance with their iphone video on Oct. 21, 2012. I was performing with Fulvio A.T. Renzi & Michele Gazich, playing "Last Of The Hobo Kings" at the Townes Van Zandt Tribute Figino Serenza, in Como Italy. What a night it was.
I am so happy to have this little homemade document of the evening I was blessed to play with these two amazing Italian violinists!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=u6ULnN0YmJg
Here's the video of Townes' song "Nothin'" that we performed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJZB1P0i-3g
A Night on the Town
Here's a shot from my night on the town in London. What a night it was! Pictured with Julian Lennon, Beth Nielsen Chapman and Robert Plant.
Led Zeppelin Red Carpet
So, last night at the premier of the Led Zeppelin movie in London, guess who found herself walking down the red carpet into the theatre? Yep, it was rather amazing. My first time to truly take in the fame game at this level. Lets just say I was rather glad they weren't aiming the camera's at me! Kinda scary, really. It was surreal, wonderful, and most importantly, the Zeppelin movie is brilliant. LOVED IT. More pictures on the way, when they get sent to me I will post them. I snapped this one on the way in...crazy night!
Aarhus, Denmark Concert Review
Last night I played my first show in Denmark, in a beautiful town called Aarhus. After sleeping off a killer dose of jet lag most of the day, I woke up in the afternoon excited to play some music. We got to the club and had an easy soundcheck, grabbed a quick curry, and I took the stage. I was thrilled to see a large crowd in front of me, on a Monday night, my first time to play in Denmark. The people were with me, my hands felt strong in the neck of the guitar, and my voice did what I asked it to all night long. It was a fantastic start to a three week tour whose purpose is to kick off the release of my new CD, LIVE at Bluerock. I consider the project officially kicked off! Thank you to all the great folks who came out to see the show, I appreciate it. And thanks to Morten Larsen with Denmark's largest magazine, Gaffa.dk, who gave us such a wonderful REVIEW—6 out of 6 stars. Onward!
—Photo by David Bust
Tom Waits, thank you.
I am deeply flattered to have been played by Tom Waits when he guest hosted Lucky Ocean's Radio show in Australia. This makes me feel so good I wanna jump up and down and tell every stranger I see walking down the street TOM WAITS played a song off of Mercy Now right next to ELVIS on his radio show. A feel good moment? You better believe it.
Mary On Adoption Radio AAC
I did a radio interview about my thoughts on adoption and opening birth records in the US, the link is HERE if you’re interested in the topic. Thanks!
Boy George Records Mercy Now
Boy George just sent me a tweet saying that he has recorded "Mercy Now." And boy am I thrilled! Thank you Boy George!
Mary on Dick Gordon's The Story
I was interviewed by the wonderful Dick Gordon for The Story for the April 18 show. It's second story in the hour, beginning at :40 minutes after the top of the hour. Listen to the podcast HERE.