Search - Mary Gauthier :: The Foundling

The Foundling
Mary Gauthier
The Foundling
Genres: Country, Folk, Pop
 
  •  Track Listings (13) - Disc #1

I was born to an unwed mother in 1962 and subsequently surrendered to St. Vincent's Women and Infants Asylum on Magazine Street in New Orleans, where I spent my first year. I was adopted shortly thereafter but left my adop...  more »

     
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CD Details

All Artists: Mary Gauthier
Title: The Foundling
Members Wishing: 5
Total Copies: 0
Label: Razor & Tie
Original Release Date: 1/1/2010
Re-Release Date: 5/18/2010
Genres: Country, Folk, Pop
Style: Classic Country
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 793018309929

Synopsis

Album Description
I was born to an unwed mother in 1962 and subsequently surrendered to St. Vincent's Women and Infants Asylum on Magazine Street in New Orleans, where I spent my first year. I was adopted shortly thereafter but left my adopted family at fifteen. I wandered for years looking for, but never quite finding a place that felt like home. I searched for, found, and was denied a meeting with my birth mother when I was 45 years old. She couldn't afford to re-open the wound she'd carried her whole life, the wound of surrendering a baby. The Foundling is my story.

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CD Reviews

Sad, Haunting, Beautiful
Kristopher Bell | Seattle, WA | 07/20/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Foundling starts with Mary Gauthier's sorrowful acapella moan "A foundling, a foundling, looking for home. Wanders through darkness and travels alone."



And thus sets the tone for the rest of The Foundling, a 13-song opus dedicated to Gauthier's childhood as an adoptee and her adulthood search for her real mother. This is sad music to its core: the music itself is subdued, languid and echoey, like it was recorded in a dark, empty, cold room, underscoring the loss that Gauthier undeniably felt. Minor keys are plentiful. And the words are heart-wrenching: snippets such as "this night has no ended/this darkness no ending/descending descending/mama here, mama gone" illustrate the depths of Gauthier's pain, and make this listener glad he's not in such anguish. In one word, this album is forlorn.



And yet despite having a singular subject, The Foundling hits many different notes, and is beautiful to boot. Gauthier skips across several different styles, from traditional guitar folk to zydeco (she IS from New Orleans) to rock (almost), and does so with confidence and skill. Musically, the album is stellar, especially the lovely fiddle work. And lyrically, there are moments that almost seem like hope or strength: "but I still believe in love" over and over again in "The Orphan King." The occasional lifting fiddle line hints at something sunnier.



But the album never gets there. There's no escaping that this is a sad country album with no happy ending. This might upset some people, but from this reviewer's perspective, facing the unflinching truth is one way to make great art in this world. And as a lover of art, I welcome albums like this into my life, if only to give me a glimpse into something I myself will never experience."