Dixie Kitchen by Mary Gauthier

Dixie Kitchen

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Dixie Kitchen

Features

Audio CD (January 30, 2001)

Number of Discs: 1

Label: Groove House Records

Catalog Number: 8003

Reader Reviews
This first album is incredible. Because it's wild, true and spontaneous. You know, Bob Dylan doesn't write songs like "Hattie Carroll" anymore. Mary does. We feel the raw rebel thing: she's herself from the marginal people, and she sings for them - though it's not conscious: there's not any commercialism here (what's worse than the commercialism of the rebel thing?). Actually, with many other singer-songwriters not very well known, Mary incarnates what's so human, real and exciting about what we call the "americana" today, a musical world which stands wild and true because the artists are performers on the road who make music by love of music, whatever they sell records much or not. They don't mind of reaching a wide young audience, they don't care of the rock'n'roll circus ("Rock & Roll Lies"). If you love John Prine, Fred Eaglesmith, Slaid Cleaves, Greg Brown... you'll love Mary Gauthier. You're in the same world. I'm not sure this is the one of Ryan Adams. Let's speak more about this first album: you hear a voice - a provocative, defiant voice (this is how sounded the 60's Dylan); you hear a sound, an immediate feeling - punchy on upbeat songs, with excellent players; the slow ballads are scotching: how can a person sound so right to your heart? "Goddamn HIV" is pure and straight, it's unbelievable. Now just tell me here's not a great singer-songwriter: only the best ones can make that. And how about the music? As a french I can just be moved by the melody of "Ever Easy", without paying attention to the lyrics (though they're excellent). Her tender singing must be for something as well. There is also light and humorous stuff with "You're All I Wanna Do" ("the way you leave the bathroom gives me a heart attack"...). That makes of "Dixie Kitchen" an album as unpretentious as involuntarily important, because it keeps the music alive, as long as the music will be done that way.

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