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

Concert #739 - Mary Gauthier, Eliza Gilkyson & Gretchen Peters at McCabe's Guitar Shop (February 21, 2015)

This was the final show of a short California tour named "Three Women and the Truth", conceived and carried out by three of America's finest female singer-songwriters: Mary Gauthier, Eliza Gilkyson & Gretchen Peters. I attended the 8 PM sold-out show. The late show (10 PM) was a bit short of a sellout.

Last night was my first time to see Gretchen Peters in concert. On the other hand, I had seen Mary and Eliza five and four times before, respectively.

Quite predictably, the stage had three chairs - Eliza sat in the middle, with Mary to her right. Each performer sang five songs, taking turns in the same order, starting with Gretchen and ending with Mary.

Gretchen's Songs

Hello Cruel World

Blackbirds

When All You Got Is A Hammer

The Matador

Five Minutes

Eliza's Songs

The Red Rose And The Thorn

Touchstone

Eliza Jane

Flatline

No Tomorrow

Mary's Songs

I Drink

Another Train

Last Of The Hobo Kings

How You Learn To Live Alone (co-written with Gretchen Peters)

Bullet Holes In The Sky (co-written with Jamie Trent)

 

Gretchen Peters at McCabe's

Eliza Gilkyson at McCabe's

Mary Gauthier at McCabe's

Eliza's offering included four numbers from "The Nocturne Diaries", her latest album. Likewise, Gretchen chose to sing songs from her most recent two albums, 2012's "Hello Cruel World" and the just-released "Blackbirds".

Eliza and Mary having a good time at McCabe's

Overall the show was thoroughly enjoyable, albeit short of perfection. Here are some of the positives:

• Stellar songwriting, from beginning to end

• Gretchen's voice and singing style were a huge hit with me. Her interpretation of "Hello Cruel World" and "When All You Got Is A Hammer" was something to behold

• Mary's incredible delivery of "I Drink" and "Last Of The Hobo Kings"

• Eliza's intense performance of "Flatline", a song from her "Hard Times In Babylon" album

• The low-key support provided by Barry Walsh on accordion. Barry is Gretchen's husband and an accomplished musician in his own right.

• The "Touchstone" sing-along, masterfully managed by Eliza, even though most people were unfamiliar with the song

And a few negatives:

• The three ladies were in a talkative mood last night - with a little bit less talk, they could have squeezed in a few more songs

• There was enough bad language for a couple of truck stops

• There was no encore

Gretchen Peters at McCabe's

The end of the show

The final bow

The stage

Gretchen after the show

Ticket-holders lining up before the show

Concert #652 - Fred Eaglesmith & Mary Gauthier at McCabe's Guitar Shop (September 30, 2012)

Fred Eaglesmith

Mary Gauthier

This concert was the final stop of a "train thing" known as the "Tin Can Caravan", "Roots On The Rails", "Traveling Steam Show" and who knows how many other names. Featuring Canadian singer-songwriter-jokester Fred Eaglesmith and following the historic Route 66, the train trip started eighteen days earlier in Chicago, with plenty of live music along the way. I bought my ticket only after Mary Gauthier, a part-time trip participant, was added to the line-up a few weeks after the initial concert announcement.

I showed up at McCabe's expecting to see two headliners, Fred and Mary, with the former possibly getting a little more stage time. It turned out there were not two, but six performers. I did not know any of the four unannounced musicians. They performed a grand total of thirteen songs, while Mary Gauthier sang only six. That was a bit disappointing.

The evening kicked off with Gordie Tentrees, followed by Roger Marin and Bill Poss. They all played three-song sets that were decently good. I liked Roger and Bill the best. The latter's humorous "Give My Daddy A Call" is the only song of theirs that I can still recall. They all received support from the members of Fred's band, namely guitarist Matt Simpson, drummer Kori Heppner and bassist Justine Fisher, with Roger Marin pitching in on lap guitar. Throughout the evening, I enjoyed focusing on Matt's electric guitar and his outstanding solos.

Mary Gauthier's set, albeit short, was the highlight of the evening. She was quite relaxed and cheerful and, with a smile on her face, admitted that Justine's good looks were a bit of a distraction to her. Mary sounded just like on her records, with the very same phrasing and vocal inflections. I thoroughly enjoyed everything she did. With the band playing right behind her, I did not miss the sparse accompaniments of her earlier appearances at McCabe's and I think she also enjoyed the higher decibel level of her performance.

Somewhat surprisingly, Mary Gauthier's short set included not fewer than three songs that she did not write. Here's her set list:

I drink

Cigarette Machine (by Fred Eaglesmith)

Thought I Heard a Train (by Tom Mason)

Your Sister Cried (by Fred Eaglesmith)

Last Of The Hobo Kings 

Mercy Now

Mary Gauthier having fun at McCabe's

Mary Gauthier, with Roger Marin (left) and Matt Simpson

For the playing of "Mercy Now", Mary was joined by Vicky Randle on percussion and back-up vocals. Vicky is best known for her many years with the Tonight Show Band. I liked her understated ways of supporting Mary and the final result was a stunningly great rendition of a stunningly great song.

Vicky Randle

After an intermission, Texan singer Tif Ginn, yet another unannounced musician, delivered a well-received  set of four songs. In addition to singing, she played the guitar and accordion. After the show I learned that Tif and Bill Poss  are married to each other.

Bill Poss

Tif Ginn and Matt Simpson

Fred's set can best be described as "something else". One could not tell for sure whether we were watching a stand-up comedian who also sang or vice versa. I liked both his music and humor and even enjoyed his deliberately corny jokes. His unsparing use of the F-Word was a bit unusual for a clean folk music venue like McCabe's, but then again, there wasn't much folk music in Fred's set list at McCabe's. Backed by an electric band, Fred's music was far more rock than folk and who would expect otherwise from a self-proclaimed member of the Rock & Roll Party?

Fred Eaglesmith at McCabe's

Fred's set included "Stars", "Johnny Cash" and the title track from his current album, "6 Volts". He also sang "Freight Train", a song covered by Alan Jackson. His voice was strong and powerful.

Tif Ginn (left) & Justine Fischer

The arrival of the train people

The stage

My friend Steve handing guitar picks to Roger Marin

The merch table

Mary Gauthier greeting her fans, myself included

Fred and Mary arriving at McCabe's

Mary Gauthier memorabilia for your pet

Concert #604 - Mary Gauthier & Lori McKenna at McCabe's Guitar Shop (September 17, 2011)

This was a rare double-header at McCabe's, coming six months after the rather disappointing triple-header involving Dave Alvin, Chris Smither and Peter Case. Just like the aforementioned trio, Mary and Lori received equal billing, but one of them had to go first, so the task of kicking off the proceedings went to Lori McKenna, and for a good reason: most of the people there, myself included, came to see Mary Gauthier.

I'm always open to new artists and new sounds and since I couldn't call myself a Lori McKenna connoisseur, I gave her my full attention. But there was nothing much for me there. Lori's melodic sense and mine are definitely not in alignment. Nor did I find her voice and singing style appealing. Same goes for her guitar playing, which consisted of not much more than just endless strumming. Was it just me? Maybe so, because she was well-received by the crowd, no doubt about that.

And that highlights the problem with double-headers: if one of the acts doesn't do much for you, then all you get is an abbreviated set from the other performer, as was the case with Mary Gauthier's short, but otherwise great performance. She took the stage for just barely over fifty minutes, and that left me craving for much more.

Throughout the show, Mary Gauthier was accompanied by Canadian fiddler Tania Elizabeth, who also provided harmony vocals. Mary was in her typical great form, vocally and otherwise. She sang nothing but her own compositions, not a single dud among them. "Mercy Now" was conspicuously absent from her set, but there were plenty of other great songs. The ones I liked the best were "Drag Queens And Limousines", "I Drink", "Christmas In Paradise", "Karla Faye" and "Wheel Inside The Wheel".

Mary Gauthier's song list (not the actual set list)

The final bow - Mary Gauthier (right), with Tania Elizabeth

Mary Gauthier chatting with fans after the show

Lori McKenna at McCabe's

Lori McKenna's set list

A rather modest poster in the window at McCabe's

Tania Elizabeth

My Beter Half was with me and so were Nancy, Jim and Steve, we all had a good time chatting before and after the show.

Nancy and My Better Half, seated at McCabe's

And now for the part titled "Lessons Learned": The next time they announce a double-header, I have to be a little more circumspect, but knowing myself, I'm afraid I'll be first in line once again, no matter what. So much for "lessons learned"...