She and k.d. Lang were "out in gay country" long before Chely Wright.
Gauthier was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. Born to a mother she never knew, Gauthier was adopted by an Italian Catholic couple in Thibodaux, Louisiana.[1] At age 15, she ran away from home, and spent the next several years in drug rehabilitation, halfway houses, and living with friends; she spent her 18th birthday in a jail cell.[2] Struggling to deal with being adopted and her sexuality, she used drugs and alcohol.[2] These experiences provided fodder for her songwriting later on. Spurred on by friends, she enrolled at Louisiana State University as a philosophy major, dropping out during her senior year. After attending the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts, she opened a Cajun restaurant in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, Dixie Kitchen (also the eponymous title of her first album).[3] Mary ran, and cooked at, the restaurant for eleven years. She was arrested for drunk driving opening night, July 12, 1990, and has been sober ever since. After achieving sobriety, she was driven to dedicate herself full-time to songwriting, and embarked upon a career in music. She wrote her first song at age 35.[4]
She sold her share in the restaurant to finance her second album, Drag Queens in Limousines, in 1998.[3] The summer of the release of this album, she was invited to play 11 major folk festivals, including the Newport Folk Festival. Drag Queens in Limousines won in the First Annual Independent Music Awards for Best Folk/Singer-Songwriter Song, and she was nominated for Best New Artist of the year by the Boston Music Awards. She was nominated for three GLAMA awards ( Gay and Lesbian American Music Awards) and won best country artist of the year. In 2002 her third album, Filth and Fire, was named "Best Indy CD of the year" by Jon Pareles of The New York Times, in 2002. She moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 2001 and secured a publishing deal with Harlan Howard Songs, then secured a record deal with Lost Highway, a division of Universal Music, in 2003. Her first major label release, in 2005, Mercy Now was on the top 10 list for the year in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Daily News, and Billboard Magazine.
She was awarded "New Artist of the Year" by The Americana Music Association the same year. Mercy Now was voted the #6 Record of the Decade by No Depression magazine. Her second Lost Highway release, Between Daylight and Dark, appeared in September 2007. She has had her songs recorded by numerous artists, including Jimmy Buffett, Tim McGraw, Blake Shelton,Boy George, Bill Chambers, Mike Farris and Candi Staton. Her latest release is called The Foundling and was released by Razor & Tie Records in 2010. It was named the #3 Record of the Year by Los Angeles Times music writer Randy Lewis. She has been featured in several books on Country and Americana music, including "They Came To Nashville", by Marshall Chapman, and "Right By Her Roots" Americana Women and Their Songs, by Jewly Height. Her songs are taught at several Universities, including Alice Randall's country music lyric in American literature class at Vanderbilt University. Her songs have appeared on Wally Lamb's playlist, Tom Waits's playlist, and Bob Dylan's playlist. She currently resides in Nashville, TN.
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