Gauthier's path has wound through devastation and despair. She has beaten back demons, lived off the streets, sunk to the bottom of life, turned 18 behind bars, emerged from darkness, and to completely confuse things won notice as a respected restaurateur - all before writing her first song.

It can take a lifetime to write even one line like those that thread through Mercy Now. For Gauthier, that life began in a kind of prison, in which conformity was the lock in the door and each house was as much a cell as any box of steel and stone. "I was adopted when I was about a year old. My adopted parents tried, but their marriage was doomed. They ended up like zombies. Music saved my life."

Mary Gauthier - say it: Go-shay - is in Nashville now, at one of the coffee bars where she and her fellow songwriters meet to check in on each other. She's wiry and tough, her speaking voice a little cracked, her laughter quick and easy. When she talks, she looks you right in the eye and doesn't let go.

Visit Mary's site at http://www.marygauthier.com for further information.

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