Anyone familiar with The Americana Music Association UK (AMA-UK) should be well aware of the prolific creative partnership and friendship between Mary Gauthier and Beth Nielsen Chapman. Therefore, it’s fantastic news that Gauthier is sharing one of their unreleased collaborations.
Deep and meaningful
“I co-wrote the song Dark Enough To See The Stars with Beth Nielsen Chapman many years ago, but never released it because it did not feel quite right. We took another look at it during the dark days of the pandemic after we’d both lost several dear friends. We saw the song in a new light and were able to re-write it and find the core idea… which is that although the people that we’d lost were gone, the love that they’d given us was not. It was given as a gift we could keep, forever.
There is something about grief that brings clarity. I took the title from a Martin Luther King speech. Dr. King said, ‘Trouble is in the land; confusion all around. But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.’ To me, this means when things seem at their worst, we’re often gifted with knowing exactly what is important, and what matters most.”
Gauthier previously announced the release of Fall Apart World, co-written with Ben Glover. This single marked a musical departure.
“I love the joy in this track, the unapologetic playful, upbeat vibe. I’ve never really done that before in a song. I didn’t know how. It took me a long time to get young! A whole new world has opened up to me. Barefoot under blue skies, honeybee’s, butterflies, yea, yea!”
Gauthier’s new album, Dark Enough To See The Stars, is out on June 3, 2022, on Thirty Tigers. While you’re waiting, her first book, Saved By A Song: The Art and Healing Power of Songwriting, is out now!