December 9, 2018

Concert #853 - Mary Gauthier at McCabe's Guitar Shop (December 8, 2018)





It is not uncommon for songwriters to reach their creative peak during their younger years, but that is definitely not the case with Mary Gauthier. A self-described late bloomer, she started writing songs at the age of thirty-five and has been blooming, so to speak, ever since.

Last night's show at McCabe's once again highlighted her incredible songwriting as well as her ability to deliver her compositions in an understated, yet highly effective manner. Indeed, Mary speaks and sings gently, yet manages to hold her audience captive from the minute she takes the stage until the lights go back on. Quite often, she covers topics that are both heart-warming and thought-provoking, as best exemplified by the songs of her Grammy-nominated most-recent album, "Rifles & Rosary Beads". Prefaced by spoken introductions, Marry sang for us five songs from that outstanding album and each of them were very well received by the crowd. The ones I liked the best were "Stronger Together" and "Iraq".

Mary Gauthier at McCabe's
In addition to some of her older gems, such as "Our Lady Of The Shooting Stars" and "Mercy Now", Mary also sang the brand new "Thank God For You", a song that, due to its happy message, stood out from the rest to such an extent that it elicited a humorous remark from Mary herself. "I Try Not To Think About Time" was yet another excellent song that was new to me.

Mary came out with two outstanding musicians whose contribution to the success of the evening cannot be overstated. Jaimee Harris, an outstanding singer in her own right, provided backup vocals, played the guitar and delighted the crowd with her lead vocal performance on "Red Rescue", a song she wrote herself.

Hailing from Italy, Michele Gazich played the violin, viola and piano with great skill. He could have ruined the evening for me with an excessively screechy and whiny violin, but instead, he produced sounds that were rich and warm. I also loved his body language and - by the way - his first name is pronounced Mee-Keh-Leh, with emphasis on the second syllable.

SET LIST
I Try Not To Think About Time
Our Lady Of The Shooting Stars
Thank God For You
Last Of The Hobo Kings
Another Train
The War After The War
Bullet Holes In The Sky
Soldiering On
Iraq
Stronger Together
Red Rescue (Lead vocal: Jaimee Harris)
Mercy Now
This Land Is Your Land (Encore)

Mary Gauthier at McCabe's, with Michele Gazich and Jaimee Harris
Mary Gauthier & Jaimee Harris at McCabe's
Mary Gauthier & Michele Gazich at McCabe's
For the evening's one-song encore, Mary and Jaimee sang Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land", with the entire audience joining in. I went home totally happy. Let's all hope now that the next time we catch Mary in concert she is introduced as "the Grammy-winning Mary Gauthier".

Michele Gazich at McCabe's
The end of the show
The final bow
The stage
Mary, Jaimee & Michele at the merch table
The merch table

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