Mary Gauthier Brings Dark Past to 'Mercy Now'

By Sheilah Kast

Published March 20, 2005 at 12:00 AM EST

An old adage holds that a classic country music song must contain certain ingredients: a broken heart, a beat-up pickup truck, hard times and loss. Singer Mary Gauthier understands the formula well from her own hardscrabble life. A former restaurateur, Gauthier grew up in Louisiana where she dropped out of high school, spent her 18th birthday in prison and later battled alcohol and drugs.

Today, she is breaking through as an acclaimed singer-songwriter. On Mercy Now, her recently released fourth CD, Gauthier weaves her past into sparse and haunting melodies.

Sheilah Kast

Sheilah Kast joined NPR in November 2003 as the weekend newscaster for "PBS/NPR Newsbrief," the hourly 30-second television news reports produced by NPR for PBS stations.

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