Mary Gauthier (Photos by Chad Cochran, below left, and Alexa King Stone)
RICH LOPEZ | Staff Writer
Rich@DallasVoice.com
Singer and musician Mary Gauthier checks off so many boxes as a queer icon alongside her music: Lesbian? Check. Activist? Check. Empathic healer? Yep. Pissed off? Absolutely.
Her latest single, “Soldier of Fortune,” is a delicate tune, but through it she gives a candid take on the current political climate. As she tours, she’s not just supporting her new music, she is also celebrating her landmark album, Mercy Now. And through it all, Gauthier approaches her concerts with an air of activism and protest.
She spoke with Dallas Voice ahead of her appearance in An Evening with Three Women and The Truth, also featuring Jaimee Harris and Carrie Rodriguez, at The Kessler Theater on June 26. She discussed playing her show during Pride, standing up in the face of hate and her gayest song ever.
For tickets, visit TheKessler.org.
Dallas Voice: You’re heading back to Dallas, so welcome. How is being on the road this time feeling for you? Mary Gauthier: Well, we never stop actually. We are just always working. But right now I’m at home before we head out to Texas.
You’re playing here during Pride Month. Do shows in June resonate differently at all with you? Oh, of course — especially this year. Pride gives us this space to acknowledge dignity in our existence. You know, pride is the opposite of shame and, sure, Pride has been taken over a lot by commercialism and corporations — that is off-putting to me — but now [the government] is trying to shame us and put us down. I’m not having it, so I refuse to step back or be quiet.
We have to have an extra amount of courage right now. I applaud the community. We all have friends and family and coworkers who may not want to wave the flag every day. We just want to be accepted. And so now, in addition to just being accepted, we have to speak up and stand up. Music gives me that platform.
How are you finding happiness amid all this anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment? I may have a different kind of happiness. When I’m deeply in my purpose and doing what I’m supposed to be doing — which is singing the truth of the world, from joy and sorrow to liberty and freedom — that’s everything to me.
I tend to write more when I’m struggling, and, in a way, that’s my medicine.
With “Soldier of Fortune” where you blatantly address the actions of the government and ICE, would you say your struggle is real at the moment? I’m 64 and, honestly, I’ve never been more personally at peace. But paradoxically, I’ve never seen more struggle and horror than I see right now.
Let’s end on a lighter note. What is your queerest song? Oh, easy: “Drag Queens and Limousines.”
Well, that title alone probably makes it so. It’s the song that keeps on giving. People always erupt in smiles and applause, and that came from very early in my career — like 1996, when I was just getting started.
After playing one of my first shows in New York City, this gay couple took me to a diner to cheer up, because the show wasn’t the best. And in front of this diner, all these limousines were there, and in between became this, like, runway for drag queens. And I was just a kid from Baton Rouge at the time figuring out who I was, so it’s a coming-of-age song for me.