Mary Gauthier – Mercy Now: The comparison to the late Townes Van Zant is well-earned. . . . . (zandt).

az - Mercy Now - Mary Gauthier: Mercy Now, the fourth album first on a 'major label' by Mary Gauthier (pronounced 'go-shay'). After a series of releases on independent labels, her Lost Highway debut seems destined to expand that audience significantly. The influence of her native Louisiana pervades her Southern Gothic songcraft, which first won an audience in the folk clubs of Boston. Within her mature, weather-beaten artistry, Dylanesque metaphysics go to Mardi Gras on 'Wheel Inside the Wheel'; the naked emotion and eye for detail of 'Your Sister Cried' and 'Empty Spaces' conjure comparisons with Lucinda Williams; and the plainspoken 'I Drink' and 'Drop in a Bucket' have the bittersweet bite of the best of John Prine. The spare arrangements of producer/guitarist Gurf Morlix, punctuated by cello, organ, and harmonica, give the material plenty of room to breathe. Gauthier's vocals are half-spoken, half-sung, and all soul.

I Drink ... Listen

[ NOW: Roots cookin', Mar 24 - 30, 2005: "Fish swim, birds fly, lovers leave by and by," she sings in her weathered alto. "Old men sit and think… I drink." Blake Shelton has covered I Drink. Gauthier's label encouraged her to re-record a warm, existentialist version of the tune, which originally appeared on her sophomore breakout, 1999's Drag Queens And Limousines, for Mercy Now. ]

and, ah, I know this one:

Your Sister Cried ... Listen

I've heard this. (maybe also played on ShapeI'mIn). "Your sister cried / a-a-all the way home."
very familiar. reminiscent of something else even before? something essential: all the way ho-ome.
tht maybe I'd find note of it here on dlww or marked on dlcs but no. huh.