STAR STUDENT Mary Gauthier - lifelong learner
In 2010 I was providing the PA and running sound at a Nashville concert featuring Americana darling Mary Gauthier. Her knockout performance showcased the particular mix of intimacy and professionalism that is the stock-in-trade of the seasoned singer-songwriter. With a well-deserved reputation for plumbing the depths of darker subjects like addiction, abandonment, and gun violence, Mary also leavened the evening with humor and humility. Her direct and plain-spoken style and utter lack of pretentiousness belied her long list of creative accomplishments, and, of course, with just her guitar, her voice, and a bunch of brilliant songs, she had the entire audience (and me!) eating out of her hand.
In the years since, I’ve had several students ask to learn tunes Mary has written, with “Mercy Now” being a particular favorite. That title track from her 2005 album is a perfect example of her deceptively simple and straightforward accompaniment yet unerring sense of staying true to the emotional heart of a lyric. If you think that sounds easy, you’ve probably never tried to do it.
“Mary’s songwriting speaks to the tender aspects of our humanness. We need her voice in times like these more than we ever have.”
Brandi Carlile, singer-songwriter
Last year I got an email from Mary asking about guitar lessons. With her extensive and ever-growing list of professional achievements and critical accolades, including eleven albums, publication of her 2021 memoir, “Saved By a Song”, a TED talk, a GRAMMY nomination, endless awards, cuts by major artists, and TV & film placements, you might ask what she thought she needed to learn, but that’s actually the point. Turns out, the longer you are producing creative work (she’s been writing for decades), the greater the danger of growing stale by repeating yourself and the greater the need to find fresh sources of inspiration, both to keep your inner muse happy as well as your audience.
Whether it’s exploring a new key, a new picking pattern, or just new ways to recombine familiar elements, the creative brain is always seeking out that spark of delight that comes from discovering fresh musical toys to play with.
“One of Americana music’s most admired artists — across the U.S. and…around the world.”
The Wall Street Journal
Mary is also a sought-after songwriting teacher and workshop leader, and I’ve noticed how many teachers love to continue learning, both in their area of expertise and beyond. In fact, my experience has been that being a teacher makes you a better student, and being a student definitely makes you a better teacher. Just one of the huge advantages teachers have is understanding their own learning process — Mary has remarked to me more than once in a lesson, “My brain gets full after about 45 minutes!”.
I think the same creative restlessness that drives people like Mary to search out new ways to express themselves also feeds the curiosity to continue learning — and we are all the richer for it.
Here’s hoping Mary keeps writing her wonderful songs for a long time to come — and that we have a lot more guitar lessons along the way…
Check out our monthly group classes on Zoom — here’s our current calendar OR follow us on Eventbrite :)