Singer and songwriter Mary Gauthier will appear at the Green Wood Coffee House Saturday, playing songs from a "...heavyweight catalog she's built out of unflinching introspection and Southern Gothic-shaded storytelling.” (NPR).

Gauthier didn't begin her songwriting career until she was 35, but her backstory makes for some moving material. Born in New Orleans to a mother she never knew and left in St Vincent's Women and Infants Asylum, Gauthier was adopted at age 1, ran away from home at age 15, and spent the next several years in drug rehabilitation, halfway houses, and her 18th birthday in a jail cell. She later studied philosophy at Louisiana State University and ran a Cajun restaurant in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood for 11 years.

Gauthier's repertoire Saturday will likely include the timely "Mercy Now" from her 2005 album of the same name, a song that resonates in our current political climate:

"My church and my country could use a little mercy now
As they sink into a poisoned pit it's going to take forever to climb out
They carry the weight of the faithful who follow them down
I love my church and country, they could use some mercy now..."

Her latest album, Trouble & Love, has garnered praise from Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, and Fresh Air.

Amy Cantú is a Production Librarian at the Ann Arbor District Library.

Mary Gauthier will appear Saturday, November 12 at 8:00 pm at the Greenwood Coffee House, 1001 Green Rd., Ann Arbor.