Rating 4.5
Great but demanding album"Filth & Fire" is a great album. I don't know whether Gauthier's previous albums are as good as this one, but, if so,
I wonder why she isn't as famous as the other gal coming from Louisiana (that is, Lucinda Williams).The standout here is "Sugar Cane": a narrative about the environmental pollution caused by (guess what?) a sugar cane factory in the Mississippi Delta. Because of its social commentary, this song is steeped in the best tradition of folk music, but it's also a plain good country song with harmonica and fiddle providing a nice texture. After just one listening, you'll know the chorus by heart ("From Thibodaux to Raceland, there's fire in the fields..."). "Sugar Cane" also epitomizes the double nature of this album: committed, social-conscious lyrics, often verging on bleakness and hopelessness, wrapped up in upbeat layers of sounds supplied by harmonica, fiddle, lap steel, mandolin and slide guitar. For instance, you'll love the mandolin that introduces the refrain in "Good-bye", even though the words are anything but joyful: "Born a bastard child in New Orleans to a woman I've never seen...". Or, in "Merry-go-round": "From the milky white of heroin as it bubbles and sooths, the dirty sheets you lie on with nothing left to lose". To complete this journey to hell, give also a listening to "Christmas in Paradise" and "Camelot Motel". I spare you the grim details here. But beware, she's not striking a pose. She sounds honest even when she describes her homeless Christmas under a bridge with her vagabond companion (as in "Christmas in Paradise"). So, don't be intimidated by this album. There are also a couple of love songs; for instance, "After you're gone" is
pure vintage country, a nice duet with Gurf Morlix. Even though all players are top-notch, this guy deserves the
highest praise, because he plays most of the instruments and produces the album. "Filth and Fire" ends in a calm tone. "The sun fades" is basically just her voice and an acoustic guitar. Her attitude is serene and makes me hope her next album will be a little bit brighter lyrically and the same musically. One of The Best Albums I Have Ever Heard!!!!!!I've been in radio for 38 years. Yeah I'm getting older. Part of the problem with loving music and having to work with it everyday is that you get jaded. You get cynical. Then along comes Mary Gauthier. Her 3rd album. Her first for me. It is dark. It is brilliant. She has made me remember what I felt like when I first heard Bob Dylan. When I first heard The Band. When I first heard John Prine. When I first heard Leonard Cohen. Thank you Mary Gauthier and thank you God for giving her this amazing talent. I can only give 5 stars. I would have given it 10!Downright home spun fire and brimstoneMary Gauthier is a prophet of country folk. She tales a dark tale of Johnny Cash spirituality and down on your luck grittiness. She is authentic and Louisianian. She is apocalypse coming to a bayou. She is real and a damn fine listen at that.The authentic life she portrays is refreshing in a neuvo biblical Revelations sort of way. Her accent isn't a put-on. She knows of stories of hard times and falls and fires. Her music is stripped down unpretentiousness. Old country pure and black. She summons ghost of Neil Young (if he were dead...God forbid), Cowboy Junkies, Nancy Apple, Roseanne Cash, Robert Earle Keene,and many many more. The songs, though sometimes painful and dark, invite repeated listens. You will get the real deal and turn heads listening this with windows rolled down, a hound dawg panting in your ear, '67 chevy truck at a stop-light in a one-horse town. Gauthier is darkness on the edge of town and harvest and oh so much in addition. |
