[2007-09-18] Mary Gauthier "Between Daylight And Dark" produced by Joe Henry (Lost Highway)

Linda · **Posted:** Tue Sep 04, 2007 12:12 am

Amazon.com
In an era when too many youthful singer-songwriters earn critical plaudits too easily, the more mature Mary Gauthier's track record has been a heartening exception to that rule. Her difficult early life and ability to create soulful, in-your-face poetry from harsh reality, occasional brutality, and hope set her apart. If anything, she surpasses her past work with this stunning live-in-the-studio effort that captures a wide range of scenarios. There's the needy desperation of the love songs "Please" and "Before You Leave" and her brilliant conjuring of the raw displacement, rage, and grief of her fellow New Orleanians in the Hurricane Katrina-inspired "Can't Find the Way" (with a cameo from the legendary Van Dyke Parks). The atmospheric title song, penned by Gauthier and Fred Eaglesmith, teems with the angst of lost love. As the hard-hitting scenario of "Snakebit" carries the tension of classic film noir, "Thanksgiving" captures a bleak holiday prison visit. "The Last of the Hobo Kings" stands as a 21st-century requiem to the vanishing transients of the past, decades before they were renamed "homeless." Joe Henry's spare, understated production only enhances the wallop of these performances. In a world glutted with Americana singer-songwriters, many plagued by a dilettantism that prevents them from plowing too deeply into the dark side of the human condition, Gauthier reaffirms--magnificently--her ability to do that and much more. --Rich Kienzle

Review
Elmore Magazine, Sept/Oct 2007
"Exquisitely sparse prose accompanied by hauntingly beautiful melodies."

Knoxville News Sentinel, Sept 9, 2007
"Between Daylight and Dark" is the work of a modern master." (4 out of 4 stars)

New York Times, Sept 9, 2007
"An album of sparse, mournful Americana."

Paste, Oct 2007
"...a triumph that should catapult her to the forefront of Americana singer/songwriters." (4 1/2 out of 5 stars)

The Absolute Sound, Oct 2007
"Between Daylight and Dark is a stripped-down spectacle."

Los Angeles Times, Sept 2007
"With songwriting as powerful as hers, there's no need looking for qualifiers...She's a unique, intrinsically valuable musical voice."

From The Artist
"I've matured - and my writing has matured," she says, "Mercy Now was as close as I'd ever come to capturing the voices in my head and bringing them to life, but with these new songs, while I still insert myself into each one, they have become much less autobiographical and more observational."

Product Description
Between Daylight And Dark is Gauthier's fifth album and the follow up to her 2005 breakthrough Mercy Now, which garnered high praise in the media including Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, NPR Fresh Air, CBS News Sunday Morning, Reader's Digest, No Depression, Harp, Paste and so many others. Gauthier was named 2005 NEW/EMERGING ARTIST OF THE YEAR by the Americana Music Association.

Between Daylight And Dark was cut live, with minimal overdubs, and produced by Joe Henry. The album features guest appearances by Van Dyke Parks (piano on "Can't Find The Way") and Loudon Wainwright (backing vocals on "Soft Place To Land" and "I Ain't Leaving").

1. Snakebit
2. Can't Find The Way
3. Between The Daylight And The Dark
4. Last Of The Hobo Kings
5. Before You Leave
6. Please
7. Same Road
8. I Ain't Leaving
9. Soft Place To Land
10. Thanksgiving

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000TWKUNG/?tag=imwan-20

[2007-09-18] Mary Gauthier "Between Daylight And Dark" produced by Joe Henry (Lost Highway)

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