This interview was conducted at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in July 2000.

Mary Gauthier (pronounced Go-Shay) explains her music simply, “It’s about telling the truth and making it rhyme.” Mary left Thibodaux, Louisiana at the age of 15, heading for any place where she thought she ‘fit in.’ She stumbled through the early years. “It’s amazing to me that I am still alive,” she says. Of her second CD, Mary explained, “Writing the songs was my way of looking back, but it’s also very much about celebrating the people whose lives are lived outside of anything resembling normal. I’m trying to expose the humanity of those whom many consider to be society’s rejects. They’re the people I find interesting, maybe because I have considered myself one of them.” Mary writes about Karla Faye Tucker, the woman executed by the state of Texas in 1998, about the darker side of drinking in “I Drink,” about falling for a hard core stripper in “Evangeline,” and in the title cut “Drag Queens in Limousines” about finding ‘her people. Mary received the Independent Music Award/2001, a Silver Star Crossroads Magazine, and a GLAMA for Country Artist of the Year. Produced by Crit Harmon, her album was nominated for Outstanding Folk/Acoustic Album of the Year by the Boston Music Awards.

From Paul: Our apologies to Mary for the delay in printing this interview. She is currently on tour in Europe and will have a new CD released this summer. Watch for upcoming shows at http://www.musi-cal.com and visit her web site at: http://www.marygauthier.com

P. I’ve got your CD “Drag Queens and Limousines” and I really like it. You’re on all these festival lineups; you are playing everywhere this year.

M. I’m having a really good summer. It’s amazing. I can’t even believe it’s me. It’s happening and it’s me; I never knew those two would coincide. Yeah I’m grateful – I’m blown away. It’s pretty amazing.

P. Your last album was produced by Chris Bartlett. How did that come about that he produced your album?

M. He produced Martin Sexton’s Black Sheep album, and I loved it. So I went out looking for who was this guy who made Marty Sexton’s record. I found him in Medford right outside of Boston and asked him if he’d make a record with me. So we worked it out and he made my first record, and in the process we became really good friends. So when it came time to make the next record we sat down and wrote a lot of songs together. He played guitar and produced that record.

P. I noticed he plays guitar on a lot of the tracks.

M. Yes. He’s excellent; really tasteful.

P. Tell me how that co-writing arrangement worked out.

M. Well we just hammer on it until it grows, you know?

P. You’d come with the piece ready and then ask for his input?

M. Most of the time. I’d come with a piece that had a chorus and a verse or two and he’d help me expand it and turn it into a song, or else he would edit some stuff pretty dramatically. He is pretty good at understanding how people’s ears listen. He comes from a background of commercials. So in a commercial you’ve got about a minute and half. In a song we’ve got three a half minutes. But we’ve got to nail it on a first listen. He comes from a background of knowing how to do that. So he knows how to play a song to peoples’ ears so that they can hear it and it hits. And that’s what he’s taught me and that’s why he’s such a great producer. He knows how ears work.

P. Also congrats on your GLAMA award.

M. Yeah, Queer Country Artist of the Year.

P. Considering that you are out and about saying it too; I know some artists may not put that in their bio or something at all, but to be proud of the award.

M. I am proud of the award! And you know what? The more gay people in the music industry who come out and talk about it in a way that it’s not an “issue,” it just is, then the more we are going to be accepted in the world, you know? I don’t like to treat it as anything other than it just is. It’s not an issue. The death penalty is an issue. Being gay is just who I am. And when you treat it like it’s not an issue, then people tend to treat it that way too. I’ve been received very warmly and ultimately the way that I feel is that when I come out on stage, especially this stage, then it helps me to ground homophobia. I become less afraid. And I truly know that if someone has a problem with me because I’m gay, it’s their problem. It’s not my problem, because the vast majority of people don’t have a problem with it. And it makes me stronger. I feel like a lot for my own mental health. It really helps.

P. And considering your history, you’ve been through a lot, and you’re a survivor.

M. People keep coming up with the next thing to do. Yes, I’ve been through a lot. The next thing just appears and I do it. It’s been a wild ride.

P. You’re a strong woman. You used to be the owner of a restaurant, and you did the cooking. What happened to it?

M. I owned 25%. I had three investors. They never did anything but put money in. I was the chef & manager. I had an equity share of it. Yeah, I pretty much owned a restaurant.

P. Are you still in business?

M. I sold it. They bought me out two years ago and put somebody in there. It’s called Dixie Kitchen. It’s still going strong in Boston’s Back Bay.

P. Which was the name of your first album. Did you perform in the restaurant?

M. I did not; no I did not, never never never.

P. I heard a little of your explanation about “Our Lady of the Shooting Stars” which is a really wild; a rather intriguing and very pretty song, and I know you explained a little about it on the stage today about what it was about, but for our readers, tell me about what that song was about.

M. Well, in my songs, a lot of times one idea is not enough. A lot of my songs require two good ideas for the song to be a really good song. So “Lady of the Shooting Stars” came from two inspirations. The first inspiration was when I came back from Martha’s Vineyard one time after playing a gig. I saw the seagulls flying next to the ferry, and never moving their wings. They were just floating. They float! That’s where I got that line about the seagulls in the song, and I wanted to write about that and I tried so many approaches. Then I read the book, “The Divine Secrets of The Ya Ya Sisterhood,” where one of the characters was praying to Our Lady of the Shooting Stars. I had never heard of that before. And I thought it was so beautiful that I just lifted that line right out of the book. It became the title of the song. I took those two ideas, put them together, and there it was – a prayer song.

P. It wasn’t necessarily that there were two ideas in the song. Maybe you had inspiration from two places.

M. Yeah, two different inspirations. Two different “this has got to be a song” feelings. Sometimes it takes a couple of those to combine to make one song.

P. Tell me something about your writing process. How do you go sit down and write? Do you have a routine?

M. I am not good at just sitting down and making [stuff] up. I need to be inspired. Somebody has to say something, or I have to read something or see something where I go, “Yes!” When I passed by this motel on I-95 coming out of Manhattan named the Camelot Motel, I wrote it down. I thought what an ironic name for a dumpy trashy motel. That’s good, because it’s the opposite of what you would think the Camelot Motel would be. Then I was writing this thing where I rhymed cigarette with kitchenette and I thought, “That’s good.” But I needed to marry it to something, and then I found it: the Camelot Motel, when I was looking through my notes.

P. You had your notebook with you…

M. I take my inspirations and write them down. Usually it’s a line, or a little rhyme, or a title, and they work together over time to become a story song.

P. I feel the same way.

M. I’m not one to just sit down and play chords until the song comes. Usually I play chords until I’m bored and then go eat. I don’t really get anywhere that way. It takes a lightning bolt or a couple of them to get me to a song. The songs I just make up sitting down, I don’t really want to play them; I’m not excited about them. That inspiration moment stays with me, you know, every time I come around it’s the title when I play Camelot Motel. I’m thinking of my inspiration…they’re going to feel it too. And they do.

P. You’re sharing your inspiration, that’s a good way to go.

M. And the audience gets the feeling when they hear the song.

P. I’m assuming lyrics come first for you usually?

M. Always. I feel the lyrics with the music, but it starts with them.

P. Are there any questions that you wish interviewers would ask you and they never do? You may have never even thought about it.

M. Not really. I’ve been asked everything.

P. “I’ve been everywhere.”

M. Oh yeah, “I’ve been everywhere man.”

P. That reminds me…you’ve been compared to John Prine. How do you feel about that?

M. I love it.

P. He’s my inspiration. And Johnny Cash too.

M. I rip off his phrasing. They do it. I do it my way and it’s me. But their phrasing is brilliant.

P. One thing I want to do in closing is invite you if you ever come to Baltimore to come on and visit our group. We have these song circles on the 2nd and 4th Mondays of each month.

M. I’m going to hang out with Sonia and try to do some co-writing at some point; we talked about it and I know I’ll do it.

P. We do a song circle and then we give critiques. But it has to be constructive. A supportive atmosphere. You have to say what you like about the song and if there is anything you would change about the song to make it better how we could change it and make it better. No negativity.

M. Right. You’re fragile when you’re in the process. One little bad comment and I’ll throw the song away. I’ll play one for my girlfriend, and she won’t react the way I want her to and that’s it. It’s gone. We’re fragile in the process. Got to be careful. Got to support each other instead of criticize.

P. One last thing. We have a camp on the top of the hill; it’s called “Camp Hon.” We have a song circle where everyone’s welcome.