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┌────────┐
────┤ Info ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
└────────┘
Artist | Mary Gauthier
Title | Trouble & Love
Genre | Folk/Rock Format | Album
Source | CDDA Time | 38:21
Label | In The Black Records Store | 2014
Catalog | ROOTSY102 Rip | 2015
Bitrate | 205 kbps Size | 59.39 MB
Freq | 44.1 kHz Encoder | Lame 3.98.4
┌────────┐
────┤ Tracks ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
└────────┘
01. When A Woman Goes Cold 3:51
02. False From True 2:55
03. Trouble And Love 6:15
04. Oh Soul 5:26
05. Worthy 4:59
06. Walking Each Other Home 4:17
07. How You Learn To Live Alone 5:07
08. Another Train 5:31
┌────────┐
────┤ Notes ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
└────────┘
Alt-country singer/songwriter Mary Gauthier exploded onto the scene in 1999
following her self-released sophomore effort, Drag Queens in Limousines.
The album, which garnered her a Crossroads Silver Star and a four-star
rating in Rolling Stone, had critics comparing her self-described 'country
noir' to the likes of Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle, John Prine, and, not
surprisingly, Lucinda Williams. The success of Drag Queens led to
main-stage shows at festivals around the country and multiple tours in
Europe.
On previous albums, Mary Gauthier's signature as a songwriter has been a
brutal honesty balanced by rough-hewn tenderness. Nowhere is that more true
than on "Trouble & Love", a song cycle that journeys through devastating
heartbreak and its attendant states: grief, anger, accountability,
acceptance, and what lies beyond. She assembled her road band and an
all-star cast of singers, co-writers, and players, including Beth Nielsen
Chapman, the McCrary Sisters, Viktor Krauss, Darrell Scott, and Ashley
Cleveland. Recording live in the round in Ricky Skaggs' Nashville studio,
there was little pre-rehearsal and no headphones were used. To paraphrase
Gauthier, she didn't want the album to sound real, but be real. "When a
Woman Goes Cold," was co-written with Gretchen Peters.
In the language of slow electric folk blues, she sings: 'You're no longer
her concern/Scorched earth cannot burn'. From inside this emotional
wreckage, Gauthier begins a transformative journey. "False From True",
co-written with Chapman, is a folk song: 'You woke up inside a cage/I woke
up consumed with rage/A million miles from our first kiss/How does love
turn into this. There are two of you and one don't feel/I don't know which
one is real'. She knows both are. The lilting piano, arco bassline, and
fingerpicked guitar, illustrate bewilderment and vulnerability. "Oh Soul,"
a duet with Scott, employs country gospel as Gauthier confesses - to
herself, not a god - accountability at the site of Robert Johnson's grave.
On the sparse Americana of "Worthy", she sings: 'Worthy, worthy, what a
thing to claim/Worthy, worthy, ashes into flame' as accountability becomes
awareness; blame is pointless. "How You Learn To Live Alone" is framed by
Duane Eddy's reverb-laden, slow country picking and a Hammond B-3. The
lyrics reveal the state in which Gauthier regained emotional independence
after the net of belonging is revealed as illusion: 'You release
resistance/Give in to the wind/Until the rain comes pourin' in/You sit in
the rubble/Until it feels like home/That's how you learn to live alone'.
Eddy's guitar caresses her vocal as she surrenders - not despairs. "Another
Train" is about carrying her scars as part of life's ragged richness,
constantly arriving and departing, its meaning ever present but mysterious.
She expresses self-forgiveness and, more importantly, accepts it.
The story isn't over at the record's nadir. The 'happy ending' is elusive;
these songs take place inside an evolving continuum. But Gauthier's
discovery is that she can not only absorb this raw experience, but embrace
it, becoming stronger and more compassionate than before, which is its own
reward. "Trouble & Love" is unlike other 'heartbreak and healing' albums;
its hard-won, experiential, Buddhist-like wisdom borders on the profound.
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