Mary Gauthier wrote “Mercy Now” as a plea — for her father, for a country mired in war, for the grace that most of us need and few of us fully extend — and twenty years later, the song still carries the weight of a true thing said out loud. The Associated Press called Gauthier “one of the best songwriters of her generation,” and an evening with Mercy Now in a 110-seat folk club makes clear what that means.
About the Show
The September 5 performance at Caffe Lena marks a stop on Gauthier’s North American tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of Mercy Now, which arrives alongside a vinyl re-release of the album. No Depression magazine named it among the top five albums of its decade, and Gauthier has said the record “changed her life.” The evening draws from the anniversary album and spans her broader catalog, which now runs eleven records deep — the most recent being Dark Enough to See the Stars, her first collection of entirely new originals in eight years. Press coverage has placed her work in the lineage of John Prine, Lucinda Williams, and Tom Waits: writers who combine careful lyricism with an unflinching eye toward their characters’ humanity. Her 2018 album Rifles & Rosary Beads, built from co-writing sessions with wounded Iraq veterans through her Songwriting With Soldiers program, earned a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album and an Album of the Year nomination from the Americana Music Association. Brandi Carlile has said that Gauthier’s writing “speaks to the tender aspects of our humanness.”
Special guest Jaimee Harris opens the evening. NPR has called the Texas-born singer-songwriter “the Next Queen of Americana-Folk,” and her sophomore album Boomerang Town, a song-cycle exploring addiction, family dynamics, and the weight of small-town roots, has drawn praise from Iris DeMent, Gretchen Peters, and Eliza Gilkyson. Harris has spoken of discovering her calling watching Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, and Buddy & Julie Miller perform at Austin City Limits Music Festival, and her music carries the specificity and emotional range of those influences.
Venue & Logistics
Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs is a 110-seat folk listening room in the capital region, built for exactly this kind of performance — a stage close enough that you can read the chord shapes, and an acoustic that does not let a lyric disappear into the room. Doors open at 7:30 p.m., show at 8:00 p.m.
Tickets
Tickets are $42.30 general admission, $37.96 for Caffe Lena members, and $21.15 for students and children. The show is also available as a livestream via Caffe Lena TV with two-week access to the recording. Buy tickets