Mary Gauthier - Rifles and Rosary Beads

  by Malcolm Carter

published: 15 / 4 / 2018

---

Review

Never an artist to shy away from a sensitive or controversial subject in her music, for her eleventh album Mary Gauthier has collaborated with U.S. veterans and their families to produce eleven songs dealing with the struggles and issues that the soldiers and those close to them both have to deal with while abroad and on returning home. All the songs that are featured on the album were co-written as part of Songwriting With: Soldiers (founded by Darden Smith), a non-profit program that brings together professional songwriters with those who have been injured as well as those still in active duty. The songs were written with U.S. veterans but those serving in the forces in other countries are obviously experiencing the same problems and share the same thoughts and experiences. Could there have been a better collaborator than Mary Gauthier? It’s doubtful. Mary has already proven that she can tackle sensitive subjects and has the ability to articulate what many feel but are unable to put into words, and vocally while always expressive she doesn’t have to resort to vocal aerobatics or even raise her voice to get noticed. There’s something warm, comforting and believable about Mary Gauthier and a lot of that lies in her voice. We have no details on our copy of the album as to who wrote the lyrics on each song but Mary makes each word her own and you’ll feel the pain and frustration felt by those who lived these stories come through in Mary’s delivery. It’s obvious from album opener ‘Soldiering On’ that for some the biggest battle wasn’t when they were sent abroad but when they finally got back home to their loved ones. At times it’s heartbreaking. “But what saves you in the battle can kill you at home,” sings Mary on that opening cut, and it’s a sentiment that recurs on other tracks too. The musical backing, military style percussion and searing lead guitar add to the atmosphere, and it’s a chilling and yet perfect start to the album. Typically Mary hasn’t dressed the lyrics to each song with the same sound. ‘I Got Your Six’ is a bluesy number, with a slight gospel feel while other tracks are steeped more in the Americana that has coloured much of her previous work. ‘The War After the War’ is one such song and sheds light on the work that the loved ones back home have to do once the heroes have returned. This song is littered with so many powerful lines that the lyrics really warrant being reproduced in full here, but space dictates so try a few of these - “There’s land mines in the living room and egg shells on the floor”, “You stare out of the window as our dreams go down the drain” or “I get no basic training/I get no purple heart/I’m supposed to carry on/I can’t fall apart.” It’s impossible to pick out just one song here for attention but ‘The War After the War’ is worth the price of admission alone. ‘Iraq’ tells the sad tale of a female soldier, an army mechanic who suffered at the hands of her fellow soldiers (“And it was so hard to see until it attacked, that my enemy wasn’t Iraq”), highlighting that female soldiers, apart from the horrors of war, also, at times, have to deal with sexual harassment. (“What I wouldn’t give them they tried to take, and when I refused them they made me pay”). A war within a war. As always in her music Mary keeps it real when others would turn away. ‘Brothers’ is also written from a female point of view noting that women soldiers are not always given equal credit. (“Kept you in my view/I’d die for You/Don’t that make me a brother too?” “I learned to cry without a sound because I’m afraid you’d put me down”. The raising of a flag on Veterans Day for the ‘men’ who served, “brothers in arms” understandably touched more than a nerve and without songs such as this would those of us who haven’t lived through these events even thought about that? The songs may well be harrowing at times, but we should be thankful that artists like Mary are educating us through their music and making us more aware of what is going on. ‘Rifles & Rosary Beads’ is an important album. It needs to be listened to by not just those in the U.S. and not just those who have loved ones in the forces. There are lessons to be learned from this album, and it gives us all an understanding that the war doesn’t stop with the last gun fired or with the heroes returning home. It’s another brave and inspiring album from Mary Gauthier that will hopefully bring notice of the work that Songwriting With: Soldiers is doing to many.

Track Listing:-

1 Soldiering On
2 Got Your Six
3 The War After the War
4 Still on the Ride
5 Bullet Holes in the Sky
6 Brothers
7 Rifles & Rosary Beads
8 Morphine 1-2
9 It's Her Love
10 Iraq
11 Stronger Together

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/marygauthiers
http://www.marygauthier.com/
https://twitter.com/marygauthier_

Label Links:-

http://www.proper-records.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/ProperRecords
https://twitter.com/ProperRecords
https://www.youtube.com/user/propertv
http://www.properdistribution.com/
http://instagram.com/properblog