Mary Gauthier is heading to The Franklin Theatre. The music legend will celebrate the release of her latest album, Dark Enough To See The Stars, with an intimate show on Wednesday, September 7. To be able to perform songs from her deeply personal new album, in one of her favorite venues, is a full-circle moment for Gauthier.
“The Franklin Theatre is one of my favorite places to play,” Gauthier tells Everything Nash. “The acoustics are fantastic, the venue is gorgeous, and the proximity to Nashville is a huge plus. This is our CD release show, a full band will be with me onstage, and we’re all excited to play this room again.”
The ten-track record is a juxtaposition of emotions Gauthier has experienced in recent years: falling in love (with her current partner, Jaimee Harris), as well as mourning the loss of people near and dear to her, including John Prine, Nanci Griffith and David Olney.
“How do you write about the wonder and glory of falling in love, while also simultaneously losing dear friends and mentors during a global pandemic?” Gauthier reflects. “How do you write about the shock of sudden loss and the richness of new love, knowing that grief and love are sisters, interwoven and inseparable? My new record was born of these questions; a collection of songs that reflect a complex emotional journey. Many of the songs were written with longtime co-writers and dear friends during the pandemic years.”
Gauthier has created a legacy of music by masterfully sharing her emotions in her music, which she once again weaves throughout Dark Enough To See The Stars.
“Love and grief are the dominant themes, joy and sorrow, the dominant emotions,” Gauthier shares. “A happy sad record, moreover, a record about what it means to love. These songs were written knowing that the time they were was a challenging time for everyone, not just me.”
Harris is a co-writer on some of the tracks on Dark Enough To See the Stars, and also plays guitar and sings on the project. Gauthier only used a handful of other writers, including Ben Glover, Beth Nielsen Chapman, among a few others, to craft the songs for Dark Enough To See The Stars. It was an intentional decision on Gauthier’s part to limit the influence on the songs that would make up the album.
“I am very comfortable writing with plenty of people, but the songs on this record were all written with people that are deep in my inner circle,” says the singer. “I think that brings forth the intimacy, and the vulnerability in the stories. Beth, Ben and Jaimee know me very well, and I, them. I think that these long-term friendships really helped these songs along.”
Tickets for Gauthier’s Franklin Theatre show are available here. Find Dark Enough To See The Stars, and all of Gauthier’s music, as well as her upcoming shows, by visiting her website.
