Groove Tube with Cian O’Connell

Mary Gauthier describes herself as a troubadour because, in her understanding of the term, it means someone who sings stories. A Grammy-nominated folk singer/songwriter, Gauthier’s songs have been recorded by the likes of Dolly Parton, Jimmy Buffet and Boy George. It is an even more impressive CV given the New Orleans native only began making music seriously in her mid-thirties.

Gauthier plays Galway’s Town Hall Theatre on Monday, October 27. Before that, she will perform at Linenhall Arts Centre in Castlebar on Saturday, October 25, and Hawks Well Theatre in Sligo that Sunday.

It’s all part of an Irish tour celebrating three decades in music and a quarter of a century since her hugely influential LP, Drag Queens in Limousines.

“Time is a funny thing,” Gauthier says. “It’s hard to mark the passing of time with any kind of consistent emotion. It seems like yesterday and it seems like a lifetime ago all at the same time.

“Drag Queens I think of as my first real record. The songs – they hold up. And I’m so proud of that. 26 years on, I’m playing those songs. I played them the night before last at a show and they still resonate with people. That’s amazing. To have songs from your first record that really contain truths that are still relevant a quarter of a century later.”

Gauthier grew up as the adopted daughter of an alcoholic father. She left home young and, for years, struggled with addiction.

Living as a gay woman in the deep south made life yet more difficult. It took a long time for her to find sobriety, but when she did, the songs began to flow.

“I think we carry everything with us,” Gauthier says. “It’s inside of us. I don’t talk about it much because I don’t think about it much. But surely, we’re all made of what’s happened to us in our life, combined with some sort of mystery that we can’t fully wrap our head around.

“I’m glad to have my story because it’s an interesting story, but I’m also glad that a lot of it is in the past and I don’t have to relive it. We only have to live those things that we’ve lived once. For me, I’m just trying to make art that reflects where I am now, but it’s always going to be informed by where I’ve been.”

Pictured: Mary Gauthier…date at the Town Hall Theatre.