Songwriter's songwriter, Mary Gauthier, comes to Marblehead

October 16 marks the return of noted singer-songwriter, Mary Gauthier, to the me&thee stage. Since the last time she played in Marblehead, she has released a couple of new albums and has won even more national raves due to appearances on National Public Radio. On this special night, Mary will be joined by a former Nashvillian (and now New Englander), Louise Mosrie. Doors open at 7:30 PM for this 8:00 PM show. The me & thee coffeehouse is located at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Marblehead at 28 Mugford Street.

Mary Gauthier’s songs are about as idiosyncratic as anything in the wide world of “popular music.” They’re painfully personal, especially on her latest release, Trouble and Love. Her songs have a way of worming their way into the hearts and minds of listeners and staying put there for a long, long time. Mary began her career in the music business after a life as a busy restauranteur in Boston as well as after recovering from addiction. It’s as though she was called to write from a deep place—a place where her fans find solace and gratitude.

Gauthier’s songs rise from what she describes as an especially dark period. “I started the process in a lot of grief,” she explains. “I’d lost a lot. So the first batch of songs was just too sad. It was like walking too close to the fire. I had to back off from it. The truth is that when you’re in the amount of grief I was in, it’s an altered state. Life is not that. You go through that. We human beings have this built-in healing mechanism that’s always pushing us toward life. I didn’t want to write just darkness, because that’s not the truth. I had to write through the darkness to get to the truth. Writing helped me back onto my feet again. This record is about getting to a new normal. It’s a transformation record.” The good news is that Mary came out the other end of her grief and realizes that she now knows what it feels like to love and be loved and to win and lose love.

Louise Mosrie grew up in the small town just outside of Nashville on a farm with British parents and several siblings - riding horses, writing poetry and singing with the radio. After college, she “borrowed” her brother’s Sears guitar, bought a simple chord book and started writing songs. The early material was mostly acoustic pop as she tried to channel her English roots. Louise began writing songs about the South after she moved back to Nashville. She wrote about what she knew and where she grew up. She produced the album, Home because she’d come full circle in her “voice” as a writer. The album was a mix of bluegrass, country and folk and as she weaved in lush stories and songs about southern life, she was even introduced once as “William Faulkner with a guitar”. With those songs, she entered some song contests connected to festivals and ended up winning top awards at Kerrville Folk Festival, Wildflower! Festival, Telluride Bluegrass Festival and Falcon Ridge Folk Festival.

Buoyed by a couple thousand earnest fans, she began touring all over the Eastern seaboard, the South and Texas. Audience members would tell her that they enjoyed the stories between the songs as much as the songs and her strong expressive voice was described as “like listening to Patty Griffin and Susan Tedeschi at the same time. In 2012, her 15-year marriage ended and her mother was diagnosed with brain cancer and died 6 months later. Out of those dark days came some new songs that would eventually be recorded on her newest release Lay It Down: 10 songs of love, loss and surrender. On Lay It Down, she collaborated with folk-rock songwriter/producer, Cliff Eberhardt, who envisioned that minimalist arrangements and restrained production would allow the emotional songs and Louise’s voice a stark relief to rest and shine in.

Tickets for the performance by Mary Gauthier with Louise Mosrie are $20 in advance and $23 at the door. Tickets are available online at www.meandthee.org and can be purchased in person at the Spirit of ’76 Bookstore or the Arnould Gallery in Marblehead. The Landing Restaurant at 81 Front Street, Marblehead offers a 10% discount on dinner if you show your ticket or receipt. Enjoy a meal before the show! As at all me & thee coffeehouse events, refreshments are available, including homemade pastries, coffee, and teas. The me & thee has a handicapped-accessible entrance and an accessible bathroom, is a smoke-free environment, and is easily reached by MBTA bus.

The me & thee is one of the oldest continually running acoustic coffeehouses in New England, and probably the country. It has been and will always be a volunteer, non-profit organization sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Church of Marblehead. For information and directions, call 781-631-8987 or check the website at www.meandthee.org.