When artistic and entertainment worlds collide.

Remember the episode of Seinfeld in which George’s two worlds collide? A couple days back I was watching Property Brothers on HGTV, and the bros went to talk to the client they were remodeling a house for on that week’s show. He was at a photo studio in Nashville, taking pics of an artist of whom he is filming a documentary. He introduced the brothers to the artist, none other than Mary Gauthier. I was flabbergasted!

If you haven’t yet heard her (or even OF her), Mary was a New Orleans chef who didn’t write her first song until age 35. And not only was she 35---hard to start a musical career at that age, but also a recovering alcoholic and drug addict. If you’ve known any addicts, you know how hard it is to survive that life, and escape that world.

I like Mary a lot (in the way I like Lucinda Williams, but darker), and recommend either her 2005 Mercy Now album (her fourth, on the great Lost Highway label), or her Gurf Morlix-produced Filth & Fire from 2002. Gurf was guitarist, bandleader, and album producer for Lucinda up through and including her Car Wheels On A Gravel Road album. He not only produces F & F, but plays all kinds of instruments. Good sounding recording, too.