Mary Gauthier

continued

I wonder how it must feel to have a signature song like "I Drink" and to have to sing it night after night — or at least know that people expect you to sing it. Luckily, it's a great song, as strong in its silences as in its few, almost begrudgingly, bitterly sung words. At one point a car alarm went off; Gauthier just halted the song until it stopped and then picked right up. Finally, Gauthier led the audience in "Mercy Now" — a sweet exhale of a song — as the night grew cool in rural Ontario.

Mary Gauthier is at the Ark opening for Melissa Ferrick on Monday, November 5.

[Review published November 2007]